A federal jury in San Jose, Calif., has found Samsung guilty of infringing a number of Apple patents and said that the Korean electronics giant should pay more than $1 billion in damages
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| Samsung Owes Apple $1.04 billion for Patents |
The jury’s verdict in the landmark case found Samsung products infringed on a number of Apple design and utility patents, though not for every phone and tablet that Apple had accused. The seven-man, two-woman jury also said that several Samsung phones diluted the value of the “trade dress,” or protected design, of Apple’s iPhone.
The verdict in the Apple-Samsung legal battle came in much sooner than expected and the news hasn't been good for Samsung. To pull out one of the most relevant details amid all the patents and trade dress claims, the jury has ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1,049,343,540.in damages. Yikes.
Apple was originally seeking an award of $2.45 billion from Samsung, but few thought it would get even remotely that much. However, even $1.05 billion is a very high number for damages. Many of Apple's patent and trade dress claims were found to be valid, and Samsung was ruled to have willfully infringed upon them in multiple cases.
With all of Apple's patents intact, and many Samsung phones apparently at fault, Samsung's legal team just had a really bad start to their weekend.
The verdict will no doubt send shockwaves through the smartphone community and raise question as to whether Apple will now go after other makers of other Android products as well. The company already has lawsuits in progress against HTC.
The jury spent only approximately 21 hours in deliberation before returning its verdict, an extremely fast turnaround for such a complicated case. The verdict form that the jury was required to slog through was more than 20 pages long, and included upwards of 700 very specific questions.
