Samsung may not end up having to pay the entire $930 million in damages awarded to Apple in a 2013 patent case.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has found that the California court that handled the case may have to reconsider up to $382 million of that money.
The case was filed by Apple in 2011, with the company accusing Samsung of copying a number of patents related to the design of its smartphones. Apple won the trial in 2012, and was awarded a whopping $1.05 billion. In 2013, the courts took off $450.5 million from those damages, but awarded Apple an extra $290.5 million later in the year. In the end, the total came to $930 million.
As was expected, Samsung appealed the decision. The court of appeals has found that while the patents related to design were infringed upon, those related to trade dress – how products are packaged and presented – were not.
"We therefore vacate the jury's damages awards against the Samsung products that were found liable for trade dress dilution and remand for further proceedings consistent with this opinion," reads the ruling from the court of appeals.
Because of this decision, up to $382 million could be taken off of the amount Samsung owes Apple — bringing the total down to $548 million.
Apple and Samsung have a very long and drawn-out court history together — each spending a lot of time and money suing each other over various patents related to their phones. Apple's lawsuits are more often than not indirectly aimed at Google's Android – the operating system used on Samsung's smartphones – with Apple attempting to slow down Android's momentum through the courts.
Apple's arguments are largely that Samsung's smartphones changed significantly after the release of the iPhone. It asserts that devices like the Samsung Galaxy S and the Galaxy Nexus were "a rectangular product with four evenly rounded corners," and that the presentation of these devices was in no way related to usability.
The legal issues between the two companies have expanded across the globe, with courts in Australia, Japan, South Korea, the Netherlands, Germany, France, the U.K and Italy all hearing related cases. In spite of this, both Samsung and Apple agreed last year to drop all cases against each other outside of the U.S. — leaving only the cases based in the U.S. to be battled.
Of course, it is highly likely that the decision by the court of appeals will not be the last we hear of this case.
Image: Brian Turner | Flickr
