Jury Boosts Samsung Payment to Apple -- WSJ
May 25 2018 - 3:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Tripp Mickle
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (May 25, 2018).
Samsung Electronics Co. must pay Apple Inc. $539 million for
infringing patents related to the iPhone's design, a federal jury
found Thursday, a new victory for Apple in a seven-year-old legal
battle over the spoils of the smartphone market's boom.
The jury's decision in the U.S. District Court in San Jose,
Calif., increases the amount that Samsung previously was ordered to
pay Apple for the patents under dispute from $399 million to $539
million. The bulk of the new damages award, $533.3 million, was for
infringing three Apple design patents on the iPhone. An additional
$5.3 million was for infringing two utility patents.
The legal fight has progressed through multiple rounds since
Apple sued Samsung in 2011, claiming it stole key elements of the
iPhone's design -- and it likely isn't over. Meanwhile, the
explosion in smartphone use has benefited both companies
enormously, with Apple's huge iPhone profits helping make it the
world's most valuable company. The jury's new award is equivalent
to only about 3.5 days of Apple's net profit in the first three
months of this year.
The jury's new award was in the middle of the possible range.
Samsung, which was found six years ago to have infringed Apple's
patents, had argued in the current case that it should have to pay
a penalty of only $28 million. Apple sought $1.05 billion.
The two companies were back in court in San Jose because Samsung
challenged a $399 million award jurors granted Apple in 2012 when
they found 11 smartphone models from the South Korean electronics
giant infringed Apple's design patents.
Samsung took that challenge all the way to the Supreme Court,
which determined in 2016 that the holder of a design patent wasn't
always entitled to the total profit of an infringing product sold
to consumers. However, it left a lower court to determine whether
Samsung must pay its total profit on the 11 phones or just its
profit attributable to the screen and case design of those
products, which the patents covered.
"Today's decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court
ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages,"
a Samsung spokesman said Thursday. "We will consider all options to
obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair
competition for all companies and consumers."
Apple said it was pleased the jury agreed that Samsung should
pay damages for patent infringement, saying "Samsung blatantly
copied our design."
Thomas Engellenner, an intellectual-property attorney with
Pepper Hamilton LLP, said he expects Samsung to appeal the latest
decision all the way to the Supreme Court, challenging Judge Lucy
Koh's direction that the jury make a decision using a four-point
test. That test sought to determine damages by looking at the scope
of the design patents, the prominence of the design, the design's
conceptual distinctiveness and the physical relationship between
the patented design and the product, he said.
"Unless the parties settle, this case is likely to be litigated
for the better part of the next decade," Mr. Engellenner said.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
May 25, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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