According to foreign media reports, Apple and Samsung Electronics reached a settlement on the 27th, the patent battle between the two sides lasted for seven years. However, the specific settlement terms have not been announced.
In the end, who is the big winner? In response, an Apple spokesperson said that Apple has always focused on design, and the significance of this case is far more important than money.
Michael Risch, professor of patent law at Villanova University, believes that 'despite the competition with Samsung, Apple has won more. But Samsung's great thing is that they can do around the inventions that Apple claims to be its own achievements. Out of a variety of designs. '
At the same time, he also stated that although the parties reached a settlement, there was a huge amount of legal costs involved in the process. There was no clear winner in this dispute. In Apple’s case, the verdict in 2012 was a major public relation to him. Victory, but Samsung also successfully avoided a ban that would hinder the company’s sales of mobile phones in the US market.
Apple and Samsung's patent war can be traced back to 2011, and it took seven years to go to the Supreme Court. At the time, Apple believed that Samsung's smartphone infringed on five iPhone patents, including the black screen panel on the front of the iPhone. On the back, the home interface application layout method three appearance patents, as well as double-click zoom, rebound scroll effect two design patents, so Samsung took the court.
In August 2012, Apple won the initial victory and lost $1.049 billion. However, Samsung believed that the amount of compensation was too high. Afterwards, it appealed and the amount of compensation was reduced to US$339 million. However, Samsung still believes this amount is too high. The United States Supreme Court filed a lawsuit, but the court held that the specific amount of compensation should be determined by the original district court.
In May 2018, Samsung and Apple returned to court. Apple claimed that Samsung infringed on five patents, including three design patents and two utility patents. The trial began on May 14 and lasted for one week.
In fact, the biggest difference between the two parties is the amount of compensation, in which Apple asserts that Samsung should pay more than US$1 billion in damages, while Samsung wants to control the amount of compensation to be US$28 million.
On May 24, the US District Court for the District of California made a final ruling that Samsung should infringe Apple's design patents and compensate Apple for $539 million (about 3.4 billion yuan). Prior to this, Samsung Electronics had paid 3.99 to Apple. In the case of a jury verdict, Samsung Electronics will have to pay Apple nearly $140 million.
It is worth mentioning that, in response to this verdict, Samsung filed an objection earlier this month, asking the court to dismiss its judgment with Apple's mobile phone patent case, or to reopen the case.
Now there is news that Samsung and Apple have officially settled, but it is still unclear whether Samsung Electronics will pay Apple the remaining compensation in accordance with the settlement agreement.
