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Court Throws Out $533 Million Verdict Against Apple Over Data Storage Patent (9to5mac.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Mac: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit made a decision today to throw out the verdict of a two-year old legal case against Apple based on data storage patents. The original verdict reached by a Texas jury stuck Apple with $533 million in damages. Smartflash LLC targeted game developers who largely all settled out of court in 2014, but Apple defended its use of data storage management and payment processing technology in court. Reuters has more on the new developments: "The trial judge vacated the large damages award a few months after a Texas federal jury imposed it in February 2015, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said on Wednesday the judge should have ruled Smartflash's patents invalid and set aside the verdict entirely. A unanimous three-judge appeals panel said Smartflash's patents were too 'abstract' and did not go far enough in describing an actual invention to warrant protection."
if that were true, how would they have gotten the patents in the first place?
At least in part because the goalposts have been moved since then. The Supreme Court's recent Alice decision that really opened the floodgates to patents like this being so readily invalidated happened after these patents issued.
Please learn the difference between a patent and a design patent. What Apple sued Samsung for was essentially making knockoffs.
While you can disagree with the verdict, Apple was selling the product and Samsung admittedly copied the design to get in on apples marketshare. It wasn't some idea that was only on paper.
From Samsung perspective even with the verdict it was worth it since it made them the #2 smartphone seller at the time.