Apple Wins $1 Billion in Samsung Smartphone Case

Apple has won a jury verdict of more than $US1 billion against Samsung after a finding that Samsung infringed six of seven patents for mobile devices in the first lawsuit to go before a US jury in a fight for dominance of the global smartphone market.

The nine-member federal court jury rejected patent claims by Samsung and its request for damages and determined that all of Apple’s patents at stake in the trial were valid.Cupertino based Apple sued Samsung in April 2011, and Samsung countersued as part of a battle being waged on four continents over a smartphone market valued at $US219.1 billion according to Bloomberg Industries.The companies have also sued each other in the UK, Australia and South Korea.Questions over damages awards were among the more than 600 questions the jury was asked to address.Apple sought USD$2.5 billion to US$2.75 billion for its claims that Suwon, South Korea-based Samsung infringed four design patents and three software patents in copying the iPhone and iPad. Samsung’s demand for as much as US$421.8 million in royalties was based on claims that Apple infringed five patents.Apple had sought to make permanent a preliminary ban it won on US sales of a Samsung tablet computer and extend the ban to Samsung smartphones.Adam Yates, a US-based spokesman for Samsung, said the company would comment after it has fully reviewed the verdict.