$539 million is a lot of money by anyone’s standards… even Samsung’s. That’s close to the amount that they were ordered to pay Apple in damages at the end of a longstanding patent dispute.
This story has its origins in the original iPhone. Apple claimed that Samsung had copied some of its patented designs and features.
It’s not a perfect victory for the Apple folks, as they were looking for around $1 billion, but it is certainly better than the $28 million that Samsung wanted to pay.
The jury gave Samsung a one-two most prizefighters would be proud of. The jab came as a $5.3 million cost for infringing utility patents and the knockout blow a $533.3 million cost for infringing design patents.
Samsung responded to the ruling by stating that they will “consider all option”, while Apple gave their own statement saying that this case was always about “more than money”, but rather the value of design.
This case has a bit of a history, with its origins dating back to 2011. Apple won a ruling in that original case. That verdict determined that Samsung had infringed on three iPhone design patents. Then, it was also brought to the U.S Supreme Court in 2016.
The Supreme Court rejected this judgement and this ruling effectively sent the case back down to courts lower than the Supreme Court. Thus, a jury was left to decide the totality of the costs that Samsung would have to pay and whether they would have to pay them or not.
That led us to today’s case and the subsequent result. It’s been a pretty complicated case and one which has felt prolonged to most onlookers.