After a surprisingly short legal battle, the jury at Apple v. Samsung overwhelmingly ruled in Apple’s favor in the patent dispute between the two technology giants. The issue here was how similar products such as the Apple’s iPhone and Samsung’s Android looked, felt and behaved like one another. Fortunately for Apple, they took out patents during the iPhone’s design process and were able to accurately depict which elements were, in their opinion, “stolen” from Apple’s operating system.
In short, Apple sued Samsung for patent infringement in reference to a few key design elements – including screen rotation, overall design, rectangular shape and auto scrolling – all elements that apple designed on the iPhone and iPad and that coincidentally ended up being included or, “mimicked” on Android phones and the Galaxy Tablet.
Overall, Apple had the right to sue Samsung for these infringements, especially when one compares Samsung products before and after the release of the iPhone IOS. There is no doubt that Samsung was inspired by the design of these cutting-edge products.
The jury concluded that Apple was the victor here. What does that mean for Samsung? Samsung must pay $2.5 billion dollars in damages and also bar the sale in the United States of any product that Apple feels was a direct copy of their IOS – which could end up turning into several billions in losses.