Samsung to Pay Apple $290M Says Jury, for a Discounted Total of $929M
Samsung to Pay Apple $290M Says Jury, for a Discounted
Total of $929M
By Michelle Maisto
| Posted 2013-11-22
A jury tasked with recalculating damages Samsung owes
Apple came up with a figure that lightens the original $1.05 billion to $929
million.
Apple has been awarded $290 million in damages by the
U.S. jury tasked with recalculating a disputed portion of the fine owned to the
iPhone maker, after a jury this summer found Samsung guilty of infringing on
Apple patents.
The figure puts the total damages owed to Apple at around
$929 million. During the third quarter of 2013, Samsung posted record-breaking
profits, thanks in part to its successful smartphone portfolio, of $9.56
billion.
The original jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion—an amount,
it was later decided, that was based on inaccurate calculations. While the jury
in August found Samsung to have "willfully" violated seven design and
utility patents, including those for the iPhone and iPad, U.S. District Judge
Lucy Koh later found that the violations weren't willful, an important
distinction.
On Nov. 12, the companies headed back into the courtroom,
where Koh tasked the new jury with doing nothing more than determining the
amount of damages owed to Apple.
Koh approved of fines totaling approximately $640
million, putting the rest of the figure in dispute. Apple was seeking a reward
of $379.8 million for the remaining fee, while Samsung argued that it owned
just $52.7 million more, Reuters reported Nov. 21.
According to the report, Apple brought in Phil Schiller,
its senior vice president of worldwide marketing—a public face who often
introduces new products at Apple events—to testify during the trial. Samsung
didn't call on any senior executives—a point Apple's attorney harped on during
his closing argument.
Jurors told Reuters that they felt like they'd received
far more information from Apple than from Samsung.
"Samsung could've come up with a little more
evidence," said one juror, adding that the jurors' decision was based on
evidence.
The jurors were made to delineate the amounts to be paid
to Apple, specific to the violating Samsung devices. While a handful of reward
amounts were reduced from the original jury's determinations—such as the
Samsung Continuum, for which Apple was originally awarded $16.4 million, but
$6.5 million in the retrial—more items saw an increased retrial award and for
greater percentages than those that were decreased, according to a form posted
to the Foss Patents blog.
The most dramatic change was to the award over the Nexus
S 4G, which rose 478 percent, from $1.8 million to $10.6 million, followed by
the Galaxy Tab, for which the award rose 385 percent, from $2 million to $9.5
million.
"For Apple, this case has always been about more
than patents and money," Apple said in a statement. "It has been
about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that
people love. While it's impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are
grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."
Samsung, in its statement, declared itself
"disappointed" by the decision.
"While we move forward with our post-trial motions
and appeals, we will continue to innovate with groundbreaking technologies and
great products that are loved by our many customers all around the world,"
it added.
Hours after the U.S. verdict, Samsung received more bad
news from the courts. A judge in Germany decided to stay a 3G patent in dispute
in a Samsung v. Apple case. The judge, reports Foss Patents, has found the
patent to be of "doubtful validity."
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