Apple ends battle with Samsung
The seven-year legal battle between two of the largest smartphone makers in the world is finally over.
Apple and Samsung agreed on Wednesday at the US District Court of Northern California in San Jose to settle their long-running dispute over design and utility patentinfringement allegations.
The lawsuit – which reached the US Supreme Court last year and was referred back to the federal court in San Jose – was concluded in a quick missive written by attorneys from both sides and ordered by Judge Lucy Koh.
‘‘Plaintiff Apple Inc and Defendants Samsung Electronics Co, Ltd, Samsung Electronics America, Inc, and Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC would like to inform the Court that they have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter,’’ the settlement notice stated.
Neither Samsung nor Apple clarified what the terms of the settlement were.
The lawsuit started in 2011, when Apple alleged that Samsung’s Nexus Android phones infringed on Apple’s patents, trademarks, user interface and style.
In August 2012, Apple won the initial jury verdict and was awarded US$1.05 billion ($1.55 billion), but Koh ordered a retrial after deciding that the jury added an extra US$399 million for violation of additional trademarks that weren’t included in the trial.
The companies also collided in a second and separate 2014 trial in the same court over other patentinfringement claims linked to different Android phones.
Samsung paid US$548m of the US$1.05b owed to Apple in 2015, but appealed all the way to the US Supreme Court to reverse the US$399m decision.
In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court threw out the US$399m decision and ordered the case to virtually restart in San Jose. In May, at the retrial in San Jose, Apple won a US$539m award in a jury verdict.
– The Mercury News