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Date:25/05/18

Jury Awards Apple $539 Million in Samsung Patent Case

After nearly five days of deliberations, a jury said Thursday that Samsung Electronics should pay $539 million to Apple for copying patented smartphone features, according to court documents.
 
The verdict, in Federal District Court in San Jose, Calif., brings a feud that has dragged on for years into its final stages.
 
The world’s top smartphone rivals have been in court over patents since 2011, when Apple filed a lawsuit alleging that Samsung’s smartphones and tablets “slavishly” copied its products. Samsung was found liable in a 2012 trial, but a disagreement over the amount to be paid led to a retrial over damages.
 
Arguments in the retrial ended last Friday.
 
Samsung previously paid Apple $399 million to compensate Apple for infringement of some of the patents at issue in the case. If the verdict is upheld on appeal, Samsung will be required to make an additional payment to Apple of nearly $140 million.
 
In a statement, Apple said it was pleased that the jurors “agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products.”
 
“We believe deeply in the value of design,” the statement said. “This case has always been about more than money.”
 
Samsung did not immediately say whether it planned an appeal, but it said it was retaining “all options” to contest the verdict.
 
The trial in 2012 focused on how much Samsung should pay for infringing Apple patents covering aspects of the iPhone’s design. The jury awarded Apple $533.3 million for Samsung’s violation of so-called design patents and $5.3 million for the violation of so-called utility patents.
 
Apple told jurors in the retrial that it was entitled to $1 billion in profits that Samsung had made from selling phones that infringed on patents, saying the iPhone’s design was crucial to their success. Samsung sought to limit damages to about $28 million, saying it should pay only for profits attributable to the components of its phones that infringed Apple patents.
 
Jurors in the earlier trial awarded $1.05 billion to Apple, but the amount was later reduced.
 
The case raised the question of whether the total profits from a product that infringes on a design patent should be awarded if the patent applies only to a component of the product, said Sarah Burstein, a professor of patent law at the University of Oklahoma.
 
The verdict appears to be a compromise between Apple’s and Samsung’s positions and does not offer much clarity on that question, said Professor Burstein, who predicted Samsung would appeal it.
 
“This decision just means we are going to have more uncertainty,” she said. “This is just one jury applying one test.”





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