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Samsung vs Apple decided

After three short days of deliberations by the jury, the ‘tech trial of the century’ has been decided in Apple’s favour to the tune of over one billion dollars.

The nine person jury found Samsung liable for willfully infringing on three Apple patents relating to the iPhone’s UI. They also found that Apple’s design patents were valid and that Apple’s trade dress was diluted by several Samsung phones. This added up to $1.049 billion.

Conversely, Samsung’s countersuit against Apple failed completely. None of the Apple devices were adjudged to have infringed upon Samsung’s patents.

However, that one billion dollar figure isn’t as high as it could have been. Some Samsung phones and the Samsung Galaxy Tab were found not to infringe, a surprising result considering the Samsung Galaxy Tab was banned for sale in some countries just after its release. The maximum was $2.5 billion, so Samsung while having lost comprehensively isn’t as far down as it could be.

Of course, the results of the trial will be appealed by Samsung and the case seems likely to be elevated until it reaches the US Supreme Court. Some interesting facts were revealed by the jurors following the case that may give Samsung some ammunition.

In particular, it seems that some instructions were essentially ignored as the one patent holder on the jury instructed the others, and the cases of prior art against the iPhone presented by Samsung were dismissed as they were “bogging us down”.

While an initial junction hearing for Apple was originally scheduled for September 20th, Judge Koh has pushed this back until December at the earliest, meaning that Apple may not have a chance to block Samsung’s devices for sale in the United States until after the busy Christmas period.

That’s all on this trial for now, but expect to hear continued news of appeals and injunctions for some time to come. There are also trials between the Apple, Samsung and other Android vendors going on. No doubt, these will also shape the legal landscape and we may see additional suits for more recent phones, like cases for the iPhone 4 and Galaxy S III. What a wonderful world…

This Article was written by William Judd who writes for MobileFun.

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