A jury has ordered Samsung to pay US$290 million to Apple for infringement of several of its patents in multiple Samsung smartphones and tablets.
The verdict, reached on the third day of deliberation by the eight-person jury, is less than the $380 million Apple was demanding for the infringement, but it’s much more than the $52 million that Samsung had been arguing it should pay.
Apple got the entire amount of lost profits and royalties it had been arguing for and most of the cut of Samsung’s profits it demanded.
The verdict represents a second victory for Apple in its multiyear patent fight against Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Last year a jury in the same San Jose courtroom ruled Samsung should pay just over $1 billion for infringement of five Apple patents in multiple Samsung phones and tablets. But afterward, Judge Lucy Koh ordered a new trial to reconsider $450 million of the damages after finding the previous jury had applied an “impermissible legal theory” to its calculations. Thursday’s verdict is the result of that new trial.
With Thursday’s verdict, Samsung currently owes Apple about $930 million.
“For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money,” Apple said in a statement. “It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it’s impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost.”
“We are disappointed by today’s decision, which is based in large part on a patent that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has recently deemed invalid,” Samsung said in reaction to the news. It said it would continue to move forward with post-trial motions.
Jurors spoke of initial disagreement on several of the key issues in the case.
“We really butted heads on some of the issues and said to ourselves, if we can’t agree on this then we might as well go to the judge and tell her we’re hung,” said Colleen Allen, an emergency room nurse who served as jury forewoman, in an interview outside the courthouse.
But the jury, which originally thought it might have to work until Friday or Monday, worked through the evidence and expert testimony, slowly moving toward their unanimous verdict.
Source : Macworld
No comments