After months of extensive litigation, a U.S. jury decided on Friday that Samsung Electronics ‘willfully’ violated six of Apple (AAPL)’s big-name products patents, ordering the South Korean firm — Apple’s top smartphone competitor — to pay more than $1 billion in damages for infringing intellectual property.
The U.S. ruling came less than 24 hours after a Seoul court denied Apple’s contention that Samsung had copied the designs of its iPhones and iPads. The court said that while the iPhone and Galaxy look very similar Samsung hadn’t violated Apple’s design.
“This is a big win for Apple,” Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group, was quoted as saying to Bloomberg news. “It’s good for innovation. It says that if you create something new, others can’t just piggyback on it. From a competition point of view, it says create your own stuff. It says copying is not OK.”
Samsung, which has gained recognition as an equal to Apple, selling around 50 million phones in the second quarter, almost twice the number of iPhones, said it plans to challenge the jury’s verdict, calling it “a loss for the American consumer.”
In a defiant statement to the U.S. court’s decision Samsung said “This is not the final word in this case or in battles being waged in courts and tribunals around the world, some of which have already rejected many of Apple’s claims.”
The nine-member jury in San Jose, California, also rejected all Samsung’s counterclaims that Apple had violated some of its patents.
An appeal to overturn the verdict is expected.
Apple, which sought up to $2.75 billion for its claims that Samsung “ripped off” its iPad and iPhone designs, applauded the court “for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right”.
“The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung’s copying went far deeper than even we knew,” the company said in a statement.
Apple is expected to now seek import bans on several of its rival’s products in the $219.1 billion smartphone market where Samsung has gained dominance.
Shares of AAPL jumped $12, or more than 1%, to $ 674.88 a share in after hours on Friday.
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