Samsung Agrees To Pay Apple $548 Million Over Smartphone Patents (theverge.com)

An anonymous reader writes: After years of legal wrangling over smartphone patents, Apple and Samsung appear to have reached an agreement. The two companies released a joint statement (PDF) saying Samsung will pay Apple $548 million before December 14th. Apple must send them an invoice before they'll pay. It's not a complete stand-down; even their agreement contains disagreement. "The statement notes that Samsung 'continues to reserve all rights to obtain reimbursement from Apple,' although in the same document, Apple disputes these rights. ... Not only does the joint statement reserve Samsung's right to take some of this money back in any future cases, but this summer, the South Korean company announced it would be requesting a U.S. Supreme Court review of its legal case." At the very least, it's a big step toward resolving the mountain of patent issues between the companies.

Comments

Re:Another win for Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah how dare they steal the genius idea of rounded corners! Damn them!

Re:Another win for Apple

[kimvette]

> Samsung should try doing something *original* instead of *stealing* from the genius that is Apple. Quite honestly, they got off easy with this settlement. Samsung should be out of business for such despicable practices.

I agree. Time after time Apple has copied Samsung's designs (including the rounded rectangle that Apple got their panties into a twist over), but now that Samsung is copying the iPhone's worst features (no SD slot, no user-replaceable battery, etc.), even on the flagship Note line, they deserve to be spanked. ;)