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Jury awards Apple $1bn damages in Samsung patent case

Zero for Samsung's counter-claims

Updated The nine-member jury in the closely watched patent litigation between Apple and Samsung has returned a verdict decidedly in Apple's favor, awarding the fruity firm a whopping total of $1.05bn in damages.

The jury took less than three days to reach its verdict, something that apparently startled even Apple's legal team, as neither of its legal big guns – Harold McElhinny and Bill Lee – were in attendance, the San Jose Mercury News reports.

All of the Samsung tablets and devices listed in the trial were found to have infringed at least one Apple patent, and several of Apple's patents were upheld for nearly every mobile on the menu.

In most cases, the jury found that Samsung "knew or should have known" that its actions would infringe upon Apple's patents.

It also found that in most cases Samsung's infringement was "willful," a condition that allows the court to increase the amount of damages owed.

In contrast, Samsung's attempts to invalidate Apple's patents were all thrown out. In every case, the jury found that Samsung had failed to present clear and convincing evidence that the patent was invalid.

Samsung fared a little better when it came to whether it had diluted Apple's "trade dress" with its products – meaning whether it had copied Apple's designs in order to purposefully confuse consumers.

The jury found that it had, but only for the iPhone 3 and not the iPad, and even then not all of the handsets listed in the suit were found guilty of dilution. Again, however, the jury found that Samsung's actions had been willful.

As for Samsung's counter-claims that Apple had violated Samsung's patents, the jury wasn't buying it. Not a single one of Samsung's patent claims was upheld, and in two cases the jury found that the South Korean firm was barred from asserting the patent against Apple anyway, as Apple had purchased the supposedly infringing technology from Intel, which was a valid Samsung licensee.

Thus, the total amount of damages Samsung can expect from Apple: zero.

Meanwhile, Apple received less than half the damages it was asking for – originally it had suggested $2.5bn might be appropriate, and on the last day of the trial it was floating a figure closer to $2.75bn – but a billion bucks is nothing to sneeze at.

Samsung will undoubtedly appeal. ®

Update

Upon examination, Samsung's attorneys found inconsistencies in the jury's verdict form which, once the form was corrected, subtracted around $2.2m of the damages against their client. So, in round figures, that leaves the total judgment against Samsung at ... $1.05bn. Same as before.

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