Samsung and Apple are head to many issues and this time it seems like Apple have won over Samsung. A federal court on Thursday rules out a seven years old case in favor of Apple. The jury members order Samsung to pay $533 million for copying iPhone design in a patent case filed seven years back by Apple. Samsung was further fined for $5 million on a pair of patented functions.
About The Case
Apple filed a case on Samsung seven years back for copying its design. Apple claimed that the design was essential for its company. The case was sent to the district court by the order of Supreme Court. To revisit the $400 million case. Apple demands a fine of $1 billion whereas Samsung asked it to be $28 million. The jury met both in the middle and imposed a $533 million fine on Samsung. Imposing more than half-billion dollar fine, Jury has to study Apple’s reason for its design being so important to the company. Whereas, Samsung said that design was just a component of building a smartphone so it opted for a lower figure.
Jury’s Decision
The jury had to decide if the South Korean Company, Samsung Electronics used the design to make a lot of profit or it was just another component in their smartphones. John Quinn, Samsung attorney said that “Samsung is not denying the fact it made profits. They are just saying that it was not used to make the whole profits” on the closing session of the case. In response to this, Apple said that iPhone was an integral part of the company and that the design was an article of manufacture rather than a component of the device. The three patent cases filed by Apple were in the shape of iPhone’s screen. With rounded edges a bezel and the row of icons which are on display on the front screen.
Effects Of The Case
Samsung has stopped the sales of the phone on which patents were filled. Two more patients included in the case were utility functions – bounce back and tap to zoom features. The case was being held for 7 long years as the jury need time to decide if the rounded corner design was worth of generating profit from a smartphone. Samsung challenges the legal decisions that all the profits generated from the copyrighted product should be given up. In 2016, US Supreme Court change the penalty imposed on Samsung. The court said that Samsung does not have to forfeit the entire profits due to the infringement on the design. The Supreme Court forward the case to a lower court.
Verdict
Samsung had the support of major IT companies of the Silicon Valley including Google, Facebook, HP whereas Apple had the backing from the creative and design communities. They were also supported by big names like Coca-Cola and other fashion industries. The case finally ends in the middle mostly favoring towards Apple that Samsung has to pay $548 million due to the infringement of Apple‘s design patents.
