The latest in a continuing series of trials and retrials between Samsung and Apple has come to an end, as a jury decided Samsung must pay Apple a total of $539 million for violating Apple’s iPhone design patents with Android handsets sold between 2010 and 2011.
CNET:
The unanimous decision, in the US District Court in San Jose in the heart of Silicon Valley, is just about halfway between what the two largest mobile phone makers had sought in a high-profile case that reaches all the way back to 2011.
The bulk of the damages payment, $533,316,606, was for infringing three Apple design patents. The remaining $5,325,050 million was for infringing two utility patents. Samsung already had been found to infringe the patents, but this trial determined some of the damages.
The award rubs a bit of salt into Samsung’s wounds as the South Korean firm had demanded a retrial over an earlier damages award of $399 million. Samsung was seeking to have the damages reduced to $28 million. That move cost them $140 million in damages alone, not to mention the legal fees. So. Many. Legal fees.
At the core of the retrial was whether damages should be based on the total value of the iPhone, or if it should be based on only the elements of the device that Samsung copied.
The Supreme Court had ordered the U.S. Court of Appeals to redetermine the damages amount, which led to today’s award.
