Jury: Samsung infringed on at least one Apple patent; Apple awarded $119.6 million

A jury in the second Federal patent trial between Apple and Samsung, concluded that the latter did infringe on at least one Apple patent. But unlike the verdict in the first case, which ended up with Apple awarded nearly $930 million following a second jury trial related to the damages awarded, the jury on Friday concluded that Samsung must pay Apple the much smaller figure of $119.6 million. Most experts had expected a higher damages total considering that the devices involved in this case were more current than the ones involved in the first trial.

The jury concluded that Samsung infringed on Apple's '647 data tapping patent, which deals with saving data on your device, and then calling it up and using it later. The jury also ruled that Samsung did not infringe on the '959 patent or '414 patent. The latter deals with syncing data. The infamous '721 "slide-to-unlock" patent, was found to have been infringed on by some Samsung devices, like the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. The jury also computed the damages that Samsung owed for infringing on Apple's '172 Autocorrect patent. Judge Lucy Koh had already ruled that Samsung had infringed on that patent and the jury only was asked to decided the amount of the damages.

"This outcome feels like a defensive victory for Samsung, but not a particularly shocking one. With Google directly involved in developing the allegedly infringing software, Apple's claims that Samsung blatantly copied the iPhone never rang true."- Brian Love, assistant professor, Santa Clara University School of Law. "

The jury awarded Samsung $158,400, ruling that Apple infringed on Samsung's '449 patent related to Apple's FaceTime video chat application.

"(We are) grateful to the jury and court for their service...today's ruling reinforces what courts around the world have already found: that Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products. We are fighting to defend the hard work that goes into beloved products like the iPhone, which our employees devote their lives to designing and delivering for our customers."-Apple

Despite the ruling, this could end up being considered a victory for Samsung with the much smaller amount of the verdict. While the jurymight have accepted Apple's premise that Samsung had infringed on some of its patents, the jury clearly did not agree with Apple as to the value of the patents infringed on.

Source:CNET