Apple Inc.
(NASDAQ:AAPL) stood vindicated on Friday when a nine-member jury in a San Jose
federal court, awarded it more than a billion dollars in damages, holding
Samsung Electronics Co guilty of having violated six of seven Apple patents
under dispute in the trial.
The verdict came
at the end of a three-week long court battle, with both sides trading charges
and bringing in startling evidence to support their contentions. It had stated
off with Apple suing Samsung i April 2011, accusing it of copying the designs
of its iPhones and iPads and using that to build its Galaxy range of
smartphones and tablets.
At stake is the
fast-growing smartphone segment valued at more than $200 billion. Samsung has
raced ahead of Apple in the sale of smartphones riding on the popularity of
Google's Android operating system.
Apple is engaged
in patents disputes with other handset manufacturers as well including HTC and
LG Electronics, as it seeks to discourage other companies from making clones of
its phones.
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“This is a big
win for Apple,” Carl Howe of Yankee Group told Bloomberg. “It’s good for
innovation. It says that if you create something new, others can’t just
piggyback on it. From a competition point of view, it says create your own
stuff. It says copying is not OK.”
While in the
initial instance it may seem like there may be fewer choices for customers, in
the long run it will create more room for innovation and original thinking as
companies will be less inclined to try and copy from others.
Now Apple is
waiting for a verdict from Judge Lucy Koh who will decide whether Samsung
smartphones and tablets should be banned in the United States, which i the
biggest market of both companies.
The verdict is a
huge setback for Samsung, which has said that it would appeal the verdict. The
jury found no merit in the Korean company's claims that Apple had infringed on
its wireless technologies patents and also threw out its $400 million claim of
damages against Apple.
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