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Apple and Samsung are ending their patent infringement battle, which began in 2011 and had gone all the way to the US Supreme Court.
Apple and Samsung in a district court filing in San Jose, California, confirmed that they were settling the issue, which has continued for nearly seven years. The court filing document, which is available online, states that the plaintiff Apple and defendant Samsung “have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter.”
The Court filing also states that the “remaining claims and counterclaims in this action are hereby dismissed with prejudice,” and another case cannot be filed on the same claim. Neither, Apple nor Samsung have confirmed the terms of settlement in this patent dispute case.
In May this year, Samsung had lost the appeal against the initial verdict in which Apple had won the patent infringement claim. The jury in a lower court in San Jose, California, voted in Apple’s favour. When the verdict was first announced in 2012, Samsung had faced a huge $1.05 billion fine from the jury, which had ruled in Apple’s favour in the patent claim case.
After appeals and trials, this $1.05 billion amount was reduced, and Samsung agreed to pay some damages. The company then went to the US Supreme Court in 2016 and was granted an order to revisit $399 million of that fine. The court in May 2018 ruled against Samsung, and increased the fine from $399 million to $539 million, which was nearly $140 million more.
Samsung had previously paid Apple $548 million, of which $399 million was for products that infringed the design patents plus more for infringing a utility patent that was not at issue in the retrial, according to a Bloomberg report. “Apple ignited the smartphone revolution with iPhone and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copied our design. It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple,” Apple had said in a statement at the time.
“We’re grateful to the jury for their service and pleased they agree that Samsung should pay for copying our products,” it had added at the time. Samsung was found infringing on five patents with Android phones it sold in 2010 and 2011.
Source: The Indian Express