A US court has ordered South Korea’s Samsung Electronics pay $539m (£403m) in damages for copying features of Apple’s original iPhone.
On May 24, the US district court in California ordered South Korean technology company Samsung to pay $539m to Apple over patent infringements on its smartphones. The ruling brings a fierce seven-year legal battle into its final stages.
The jury found Samsung has to pay Apple $533.3m for infringements on three design patents, as well as $5.3m on two utility patents. Samsung argued it should only pay $28m for the component parts it had used, whereas Apple wanted north of $1bn.
The patents in question are some things we take for granted now, UI cues like “rubber-banding” at the bottom of a list or using two fingers to zoom in and out. But they were all part of the “boy have we patented it” multi-touch gestures of which Steve Jobs was so proud. In addition there were the defining characteristics of the first iPhone, now familiar (black round rectangle with a big screen, etc.). At any rate, Apple sued the dickens out of Samsung over them.
In a statement, Apple said it was pleased that the members of the jury “agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products.”
“This case has always been about more than money,” the tech giant said, adding that it was important that it continued to protect the “hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple”.
But Samsung said the decision “flies in the face” of the unanimous Supreme Court ruling in its favour on the way the design patent damages are calculated.
“We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”
Does that mean they’re going to take it as high as the Supreme Court (again) and drag the case out for another couple of years? Or will they cut their losses and just be happy to stop paying the legal fees that probably rivaled the damages assigned? Hopefully the latter.
