In early 2011, Apple Inc. began litigation against Samsung Electronics Co. over four design patents and three utility patents they had filed in over the course of 2007. The design patents were filed four days before they introduced their first iPhone to the world. After their filings, Apple accused Samsung of infringing on their United States utility patent Nos. 7,469,381, 7,844,915, and 7,864,163, as well as their United States design patent Nos. D504,889, D593,087, D618,677, and D604,305.
Samsung responded by counter-suing Apple for infringing on some of their patents, specifically their United States patent Nos. 7,675,941, 7,447,516, 7,698,711, 7,577,460, and 7,456,893. This litigation continued back and forth for a couple years until 2012, when Apple won a verdict widely in their favor. The jury found that Samsung deliberately infringed on Apple’s design and utility patents, as well as some aspects of their iPhone design. As a result, they ordered Samsung pay $1.049 billion in damages to Apple.
By late 2012, Samsung had done everything in their power to try reverse or mitigate this huge case. In October of 2012, the US Patent and Trademark office rendered two of Apple’s filed patents invalid. This brought Apple and Samsung back to court in December. Court judge Lucy H. Koh decided on December 17, 2012 that the damages Samsung had to pay after their first trial were miscalculated by somewhere around $400 million, ordering a retrial.
Ultimately, Samsung still ended up losing the case; however, they did not have to pay nearly as much as the court initially ordered. It is estimated that Samsung will end up paying somewhere around $120 million. While this is still a very large settlement, Samsung definitely dodged a bullet compared to their initial ‘damages’ of $1.049 billion.
Article: http://www.theverge.com/2015/5/18/8619871/apple-samsung-appeal-patent-trade-dress-2015
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezDekNT4U2w&feature=youtu.be
Hi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI like how you went into detail about the past lawsuits between Apple and Samsung. I think it was really helpful in understanding the context of the patent warfare between these two companies and how this series of appeals will likely happen again in the future. You might have wanted to mention the most recent appeal case that happened this Friday where the court repealed the past jury verdict that awarded Apple with $120 million.
Hi Daniel,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing all the patents in question during the trial between Apple and Samsung: I liked how you listed all the patent numbers. In addition, you did a good job giving the history of Apple and Samsung in terms of patent litigations. However, to make this post even better, I recommend actually telling us about what the patents were about and the specific technology and claims of the patents.
Great post overall.