Smartphone rivals agree to end longrunning legal battle
Smartphone makers end patent fight over iPhone and Android
SAN JOSE >> The seven-year legal battle between two of the largest smartphone makers in the world is finally over.
Cupertino-based Apple and Samsung agreed Wednesday to settle their long-running dispute over design and utility patentinfringement allegations at the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Jose.
The lawsuit — which reached the U.S. 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.
Samsung declined to com-
ment about the settlement.
Apple spokesperson Rachel Wolf Tulley provided this statement: “We believe deeply in the value of design, and our teams work tirelessly to create innovative products that delight our customers. This case has always been about more than money. Apple ignited the smartphone revolution with iPhone and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copied our design. It is important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.”
The lawsuit started in 2011, when Apple alleged that Samsung’s then-new Nexus Android phones infringed upon Apple’s patents, trademarks, user interface and style. In August 2012, Apple won the initial jury verdict and was awarded $1.05 billion, but Koh ordered a retrial after deciding the jury added an extra $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 $548 million of the $1.05 billion owed to Apple in 2015, but appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the $399 million decision. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court threw out the $399 million decision and ordered the case to virtually restart in San Jose.
In May, at the retrial in San Jose, Apple won a $539 million award in a jury verdict.
With the settlement of remaining claims and counterclaims in the Apple v. Samsung fight, Apple ends a long battle that its late co-founder Steve Jobs once fervently waged.
In the famous biography of Jobs by author Walter Isaacson, Jobs said he was ready to destroy Android as he believed it was stolen from the iPhone, according to Gizmodo.
“I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong,” Jobs said in the book. “I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”