1,049,343,540 to 0: A Summary Of The Apple vs. Samsung Verdict [Update]
By now you might have heard about Samsung’s monumental loss in court. If not, let me give you the score: 1,051,855,0001,049,343,540 to 0. The first number, you know, the one with all the commas; that one goes to Apple. Samsung — NO SOUP FOR YOU! The jury handed down a verdict today in the case of Apple vs. Samsung, and let’s just say Samsung was on the wrong end of it. Samsung was found guilty of willfully infringing on a majority of Apple’s various software and hardware design patents, as well as trade-dress dilution, and thus ordered to pay damages in the amount of $1,051,855,000$1,049,343,540 (WOWZERS).
Damages awarded to Apple were broken down by device as follows:
- $57 million for the Samsung Prevail
- $44,792,974 for the Infuse 4G
- $53,123,612 for the Mesmerize
- $3,350,256 for the Replenish
- $954,060 for the Transform
As for Samsung’s counter suit claiming Apple violated five different utility patents with the iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, and others — nothing. The jury cleared Apple and sent Samsung home with a pocket full of lint.
Of course, I do not agree with any of these verdicts — probably why I wasn’t selected to be a juror. The dilution part makes my head hurt as I was always under the impression that competitors were supposed to try and dilute the sales of their competition. But then again, that’s why I’m not a patent lawyer. Also, the sales of the products in question hardly had an affect on iPhone sales, but again, I wasn’t on the jury.
Where do we go from here? Well, you can expect to see the lawsuits continue, and I’m guessing Samsung will be providing Apple with a few billion screens — free of charge.
[Update]After Samsung brought up the fact that the initial $1,051,855,000 figure included devices that had been found not to infringe on said patents, the jury went back and dropped the damages to $1,049,343,540. Headline was changed to reflect the new number.