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Samsung Ordered To Pay Apple $290M In Patent Case

Posted by timothy on from the not-in-nickels-this-time dept.

itwbennett writes "After 3 days of deliberations, a jury has ordered Samsung to pay $290 million to Apple for infringement of several of its patents in multiple Samsung smartphones and tablets. The verdict is the second victory for Apple in its multiyear patent fight against Samsung in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Last year a jury in the same San Jose courtroom ruled Samsung should pay just over $1 billion for infringement of five Apple patents in multiple Samsung phones and tablets. But afterward, Judge Lucy Koh ordered a new trial to reconsider $450 million of the damages after finding the previous jury had applied an 'impermissible legal theory' to its calculations. Thursday's verdict is the result of that new trial."

15 of 219 comments (clear)

  1. Groklaw where art thou? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Whatever happened to Groklaw!!!

    1. Re:Groklaw where art thou? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Tells you how a tight a grip the US government has on its people. Pretty convenient actually, don't like an activist website? Send them a secret order to make them snoop on the website's participants, website shuts down on its own accord without any messy arguments over one amendment or the other.

    2. Re:Groklaw where art thou? by jareth-0205 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Seriously? WTF did Groklaw do that would warrant such a thing?

      That is a terrible way of looking at it...

    3. Re:Groklaw where art thou? by jafac · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you're being monitored by the NSA, and if you're a journalist, that excludes a huge amount of potential sources who might talk with you. Certain sources would shy away from any contact which might be monitored by the NSA. (this is true whether any of Snowden's revelations were true or not - only if the revelations were credible).

      --

      These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
  2. Have you noticed? by i+kan+reed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Have you noticed these summaries never include what the patents are anymore? Samsung didn't even claim they didn't intrude on the patents, just that they made what their market research said was a good idea.

    All you have to do is comprehensively patent every element of your design, and if any of it is a good idea, you'll get to sue anyone in the same field.

    1. Re:Have you noticed? by Nerdfest · · Score: 3, Insightful

      And if you try your case in certain places, you'll win. With Apple, apparently even if you lose, you win.

    2. Re:Have you noticed? by ausekilis · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The real question is at what point do these ideas become "common knowledge" enough that the patent should be no more. After all, every TV is rectangular in shape, with button (touch) controls in the lower right or right hand side. That's right, this is the USA where the patents are made up and the durations don't matter.

    3. Re:Have you noticed? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      This was only a trial on DAMAGES. Therefore, it was irrelevant whether Samsung infringed Apple's patents, because that was already determined to be the case.

    4. Re:Have you noticed? by alvinrod · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They're not, but when there are an ever increasing number of patents to comb through, it becomes impossible to determine if there are any out there that you violate. Add in a number of inane patents like "X, but on a computer!" and it just becomes cheaper to deal with the legal consequences after the fact. Whether a person thinks software should be able to be patented at all, I think everyone can agree that the system as it is needs an overall.

  3. Re:"APPEL FANBOI LOL" commenst aside... by ackthpt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    The verdict clearly shows that Samsung did capitalize on Apple's enormous investment into R&D and should pay.

    Tech R&D or Legal R&D?

    It's so hard to tell these days without a scorecard.

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  4. Thermonuclear war by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple remains obsessed with thermonuclear war instead of introducing products that people want. Meanwhile its market share keeps slip, slip, slipping away.

    --
    When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    1. Re:Thermonuclear war by Tough+Love · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But its profits stay sky high.

      You know Roadrunner vs the Coyote? You know how Coyote dangles in the air for a while before cratering? It's like that.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  5. It's not about innovation by ggraham412 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In an age where you can patent a rectangle, is it really about innovation anymore?

    This isn't an example of bad Samsung capitalizing on Apple's good ideas. This is about major corporations being encouraged to stick their flags in the obvious and make else everyone pay. Whether you pay Apple or whether you pay Samsung (who then has to pay Apple), you're paying up and up for a fucking rectangle and whatever else is in their catalog of the obvious.

    1. Re:It's not about innovation by LordLucless · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The patent you're speaking of was a design patent ... and the claim you're referencing was but one of many included in that particular patent...Suggesting that someone was able to patent merely "a rectangle" is a gross mischaracterization of what actually occurred.

      Here is the patent in question. Please show me the "many" claims other than the rectangular shape that demonstrate the OPs "gross mischaracterization".

      --
      Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
  6. Is it a waste? by TsuruchiBrian · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sometimes I think that all this litigation is a terrible waste of human effort. Then I try to imagine all these lawyers doing something more productive with their time instead, and I just can't.