Samsung to pay Apple $1 billion
The Federal court of San Jose (California) found Samsung guilty of copying the design and technology of Apple mobile devices and ordered the South Korean company to pay compensation in the amount of $ 1.051 billion.
The US court found violations of six of the seven Apple patents in Samsung products and ordered the South Korean company to pay more than $1 billion in compensation for the damage caused. The fine turned out to be lower than stated: Apple initially demanded from $2.5 billion for compensation for all violations.
As a result, after the verdict, in the first hours of trading on the Seoul stock exchange, Samsung shares collapsed by 7.7% (or $78.38) to $1043.88 per share. This is a record decline since October 2008.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple representatives approved the verdict of the jury, noting that there were sufficient grounds for it. “Apple’s patent protection will be an incentive for innovation,” said Michael Gartenberg, Director of research at Gartner.
As for Samsung, its management stated that the court’s decision is not a victory for Apple, but a defeat for American consumers, writes The Verge. “Such a decision may lead to higher prices,” Samsung believes.
It is worth noting that the only Apple claims that the jury did not satisfy were violations in the design of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Moreover, the final court decision contradicts the preliminary one, in which copying elements of the external design of the iPad were the basis for a ban on the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Now that the ban has expired, Samsung can to recover compensation from Apple for the damage caused by the ban on sales.
According to the counterclaims, the court did not find Apple guilty of violating any of the five Samsung patents, for which charges were brought with a claim for compensation in the amount of $421.8 million. Now, according to experts, following the court decision, Samsung may appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States about the fairness of the verdict of the California court.
Recall that on the eve of the South Korean court banned the sale of a number of devices of both companies and punished them with fines. At the same time, the court found Samsung not guilty of violating patents for the design of devices. But “on your own field” Apple has achieved what it could not do in a South Korean court. And now the company has the right to decide which Samsung devices will not be sold in the United States due to patent infringement (a total of 28 competitor devices are mentioned in the lawsuit).
