It’s less than half what Apple asked for in damages, but Apple is the big winner today in the Apple v. Samsung patent battle. Apple won $1.05 billion dollars (US) in damages from Samsung, which the jury found “copied” critical features of Apple iPad and iPhone tech.
“Today’s verdict should not be viewed as a win for Apple, but as a loss for the American consumer. It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation and potentially higher prices,” a Samsung rep said in a statement.
Apple rep Katie Cotton told The Wall Street Journal:
The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than even we knew … we make these products to delight our customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy.
The jury’s verdict comes exactly a year to the day after the late Apple founder and CEO Steve Jobs announced his retirement from Apple on August 24, 2011. For Apple, that victory plus the timing will be doubly sweet.
One sour cherry for Apple: Samsung won a case against Apple in Samsung’s home court of Seoul, Korea today, too.
We wondered earlier today whether the judge would issue an injunction and got our answer. Two hours ago, Judge Lucy Koh heard Apple’s request for an injunction hearing, arguing that is would suffer “irreparable harm” were the units to stay on sale. That is scheduled for Sept. 20.
If Samsung appeals the ruling from today, then the parties will likely settle for something south of the jury verdict, assuming Samsung has a reasonable argument for appeal. All patent appeals are heard at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, and that court has about a 50 percent chance of overturning some aspect of a trial court’s decision in a patent case. The Northern District of California courts have somewhat better statistics, observers told aNewDomain.net.
Read the Apple Samsung verdict jurors delivered. Read in place here.
Check out this Wall Street Journal video out — in it, guests discuss the ramifications of the case, as in what will it mean to geeks, enterprises and regular folk? The answers are myriad.
This is the only piece I’ve seen that’s showed the handwritten jury verdict — with the number penciled in! Good job anewdomain
[…] LLC, Apple is involved in more than 60 percent of the patent lawsuits going on globally right now. Fresh from its win with Samsung, you can expect Apple to continue to fight for its patents in this increasingly nasty […]