Apple against Samsung patent lawsuit of iPhone design finally completely finished

Apple and Samsung have finally concluded Wednesday their long battle against several iPhone patents, both parties agree to settle the remaining claims and counterclaims.

As a result, the court dismissed Apple's petition for further damages, as well as pre-trial and post-judgment interest, according to documents filed by the US District Court Intermediate for the North District. from California. Samsung, for its part, is abandoning motions aimed at invalidating Apple's' 915 patent, seeking an alternative remedy and issuing a recent verdict.

The exact terms of the agreement have not been made public.

The last trial

After days of deliberation, a federal jury rendered its most recent decision regarding Apple v. Samsung On May 24, the South Korean technology giant owes $ 533,316,606 for violating Apple's patents on iPhone design. Another $ 5.3 million was awarded for two patents of utility.

Samsung's lawyer, John Quinn, told Justice Lucy Koh that he had problems with the verdict that would be dealt with in the post-trial applications. Based on the filing, it appears that Quinn's concerns have been either addressed or rejected.

The lawsuit is the result of battles in the audience hall between the two tech giants, which took place in 2012, at a time when Apple received $ 1 billion in damages. It was found by the court that Samsung had violated a variety of Apple patents, including those for "Bounce-Back Effect" and "Tap to Zoom".

A settlement appears to have been reached in 2015, bringing the amount down to $ 548 million, while the case continued to be the subject of an appeal process.

In late 2016, the case was brought before the US Supreme Court, which ruled unanimously in favor of Samsung in December 2017, deciding that design patents only cover the individual components of smartphones and not the entire mobile device. The decision meant the case was remitted to a lower court for a new determination of damages.

In the context of the new trial, the burden was not on Samsung to rebut the entire smartphone is a "manufactured item", but instead, Apple had to defend his claims. The iPhone producer had to convince the court that counterfeit patents applied to the entire product and not to individual components.

At the last trial, jurors determined how much Samsung had to pay Apple as part of the offense, rather than whether the offense had occurred. While Apple wanted a billion dollars for the offense, Samsung had already indicated that it was willing to pay $ 28 million.

The trial's first witness was Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of marketing, who testified that design was an important part of the business, critical even before the iPhone debuted in 2007. Apple's attorneys have displayed product jury photographs including Macs, iPods, Powerbooks, and MacBooks to drive the design point being "in the company's DNA."

While Apple "bets the company" on the launch of the iPhone, Joswiak noted that this has led Apple to file a large number of patents to protect its design and other elements , such as communication techniques.

Apple's expert witnesses, Adam Ball, and Mac's original creator, Susan Kare, have argued on the merits of Apple's patents. Importantly, the pair took the side of Apple's legal team by reviewing three agreed designs applicable to the iPhone's "manufactured items".

Samsung's lawyers have successfully obtained concessions from Ball and Kare, recognizing that smartphones are made from individual components. Kare admitted "I understand that a screen is one thing," and agreed that Apple's patent illustrations included dotted lines that, while providing a complete picture of the iPhone concept, are not necessarily covered in his claims.

Ball conceded that the iPhone could be dismantled into several parts, but stressed that the jury should continue to focus on the final design. "It's not because you can take apart something that was designed that way," Ball said. "If you replace [a component]you are trying to come back to that thing you bought. "

Samsung's expert witness, accountant Michael J. Wagner, extensively discussed the Korean giant's accounting practices. Asked by Apple's Bill Lee's attorney if Samsung balances its sheets by counting the profits of the components, Wagner answered "no" to each item.

The interrogation of Lee has apparently tried to prove that Samsung also believes that, from a financial point of view, an article of manufacture is the entire device and not individual parts.

Wagner also confirmed that Samsung has realized $ 3.3 billion on the sale of 8.6 million smartphones that have been found to have violated Apple's design patents, but this figure is based on the consideration of from the entire mobile device.

In closing arguments, Apple's Joe Mueller's lawyer reiterated expert witness points, stating that "the fact that you can disbademble a phone means absolutely nothing." The question is, what do they apply to these drawings? screen that does not display GUI, it's the phone. "

In contrast, Samsung's lawyer, John Quinn, told the jury: "Apple's design patents do not cover anything inside phones, they do not even cover everything outside." Under the law, Apple is not entitled to any profit. manufacture to which the drawing was not applied. "