Apple recoups most Samsung damages cut from 2012 verdict

San Francisco: Apple Inc. won more than $290 million in damages fromSamsung Electronics Co. for patent infringement in a do-over trial that restored most of the amount cut from the iPhone maker’s jury victory in 2012.

A jury of six women and two men decided the damages amount on Thursday after a week-long trial in federal court in San Jose, California, where Apple won a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung last year over copying of technology used in smartphones.

US district judge Lucy Koh cut $410.5 million in March after finding the original verdict was flawed because jurors miscalculated the period that the infringement occurred for 13 Samsung devices. In the retrial, Apple sought to restore $380 million of the amount cut, while Samsung recommended that the jury award $52 million.

Apple has won almost $1 billion from Samsung and has the possibility of winning an injunction against infringing devices, said Carl Howe, an analyst with Yankee Group. Samsung may consider patent infringement simply a cost of doing business — fair enough, Howe said. However, I think the costs in public perception will end up being higher, and will force Samsung to do things differently in the future.

The world’s top two smartphone makers have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees on claims of copying each other’s features in a global battle to dominate the market. Apple, which initiated the legal fight in 2011, had 13% market share in the third quarter of this year, while Samsung had 31%, according to IDC, a research firm based in Framingham, Massachusetts.

Fifth-largest

On its own, today’s verdict is the fifth-largest jury award in the US in 2013, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. It’s the largest jury award this year in a patent case. Total damages owed by Samsung now stand at $930 million.

The verdict includes a breakdown for damages for the 13 Samsung devices covered by the retrial, including almost $100 million for Samsung’s Infuse 4G. None of the devices covered by the trial are currently sold by Samsung.

For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money,Kristin Huguet, a spokesman for Cupertino, California-based Apple, said in a phone interview after the verdict. It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it’s impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost.

 pratima kumari

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