May 25 (UPI) — A California jury Thursday ordered Samsung to pay Apple $539 million for infringing on five patents for design and utility features on the original iPhone in its own phones sold in 2010 and 2011.
The U.S. District Court in San Jose reached a unanimous decision ordering Samsung to pay $533,316,606, for infringing three Apple design patents and an additional $5,325,050 for infringing two utility patents.
The infringement dispute between the two companies dates back to 2011, when Apple claimed Samsung infringed on three of its design patents covering a rectangular front face with rounded edges and a grid of colorful icons on a black screen.
In 2012, a jury ruled Samsung sold 15.3 million phones that infringed on five Apple iPhone design patents, including the two utility patents, which cover how the devices work.
The Supreme Court reached a unanimous decision in 2016, ruling that damages for design patent infringement can be based only on the part of the device that infringed the patents and not the entire product.
It then sent the case back to the lower courts to have a jury determine how the damages should be calculated.
The final sum falls between Apple’s demands for $1 billion, equal to full profits attributable to the sales of the infringed phones and Samsung’s suggested penalty of about $28 million, directly related to the value of the components impacted by patents.
“Today’s decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages,” Samsung said in a statement. “We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”
Apple released its own statement, saying the case has always been about “more than money.”
“We believe deeply in the value of design, and our teams work tirelessly to create innovative products that delight our customers,” Apple said. “Apple ignited the smartphone revolution with iPhone and it is a fact that Samsung blatantly copied our design.”
