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 During the month-long trial in a San Jose, California, federal
court, Apple accused Samsung of violating patents on smartphone
features including universal search, while Samsung denied
wrongdoing. On Friday, the jury found the South Korean smartphone
maker had infringed two Apple patents.
Apple and Samsung have been litigating around the world for three
years. Jurors awarded the iPhone maker about $930 million after a
2012 trial in San Jose, but Apple failed to persuade U.S. District
Judge Lucy Koh to issue a permanent injunction against the sale of
Samsung phones in the United States.
Some industry observers see the ongoing legal dispute as an attempt
by Apple to curtail the rapid growth of phones based on Google Inc's
rival Android software. Samsung was by far the largest adopter of
the operating platform.
"Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to
view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple. This amount is
less than 10 percent of the amount Apple requested, and probably
doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this
case," said Brian Love, assistant professor at the Santa Clara
University School of Law.
"Apple launched this litigation campaign years ago with aspirations
of slowing the meteoric rise of Android phone manufacturers. It has
so far failed to do so, and this case won't get it any closer."
The current case involves five Apple patents that were not in the
2012 trial and that cover iPhone features such as slide-to-unlock
and search technology. Apple is seeking to ban sales of several
Samsung phones, including the Galaxy S III, and sought just over $2
billion in damages.
It will now be up to Judge Koh to decide whether a sales ban is
warranted, though legal experts deem that unlikely.
"An injunction is extremely unlikely," argued Michael Carrier, a
professor at Rutgers Law School. "The Federal Circuit sets a high
bar."
Responding to the verdict, Apple said the ruling reinforced its
stance that "Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our
products."
Samsung representatives were not immediately available for comment.
TO AND FRO
The shortfall in damages for Apple led some experts to again
question whether patent litigation amongst the technology industry's
largest players, which has been on the rise in past years, was a
viable strategy.
Critics have argued that patent litigation can be abused and can
hinder innovation. Its advocates say litigating helps innovators
protect their intellectual property and benefit from them.
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"What the verdict shows is that Apple's patents did not play a
significant role in consumer decisions," Carrier wrote. "One wonders
if the endless smartphone patent wars, costing millions and putting
the focus on the courtroom rather than the innovation lab, are worth
it."
During the trial, Samsung argued that Apple had vastly exaggerated
the importance of its patented iPhone features, while Apple said the
South Korean company could not have competed in the smartphone
market without unfairly copying its flagship product.
In the San Jose trial, the jury found that Samsung had infringed two
patents, and the judge had ruled before trial that Samsung had
infringed a third. The jury also found Apple had infringed on one of
the Korean company's own patents.
Samsung, which asserted a $6 million damages claim, was awarded
$158,400.
During the trial, the two tech leaders also sparred over how
Google's work on the software used in Samsung phones affects Apple's
patent claims. Samsung's phones run on the Android mobile operating
system developed by Google Inc.
Google was not a defendant in the case, but during the trial Samsung
pointed out that some of the features Apple claims to own were
actually invented by Google, and called a handful of executives from
the Internet search giant to testify on its behalf.
Apple said Google shouldn't affect how jurors analyzed Samsung's
liability, partly because Google had agreed to reimburse some of
Samsung's costs.
After the jury delivered its verdict, Apple attorneys argued that
the jurors had made a technical mistake in awarding damages to Apple
on a patent covering one of Samsung's phones. Koh ordered the jurors
to return on Monday to resolve the issue, which could boost Apple's
damages award by a few hundred thousand dollars.
The case in U.S. District Court, Northern District of California is
Apple Inc vs. Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, 12-630.
(Additional reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Ken Wills)
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