Samsung Owes Apple $120 Million in Longstanding Slide-to-Unlock Lawsuit

[MacRumors]

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reinstated Apple's $119.6 million award in a longstanding patent lawsuit with Samsung, after eight of twelve judges ruled it was wrong to throw out the verdict in February.

The bulk of the award, $98.7 million, was for the detection patent that the earlier panel said wasn't infringed. The February decision also said the other two patents were invalid. [...] That was a wrong decision, the court ruled Friday, because it relied on issues that were never raised on appeal or on information that was beyond the trial record.

The long-running lawsuit dates back to 2011, when Apple accused Samsung of infringing upon its now-retired slide-to-unlock feature, autocorrect, and a method of detecting phone numbers so they can be tapped to make phone calls, according to Bloomberg. The case is not to be confused with a similar Apple v. Samsung lawsuit related to accusations of older Galaxy smartphones infringing upon the iPhone's design.

The appeals court will argue that second case, also dating back to 2011, on Tuesday to determine how much Samsung should pay for copying the look and feel of the iPhone, according to the report. Samsung was originally ordered to pay Apple damages of $548 million, but it appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court in December as a last-ditch effort to avoid paying the settlement.

In August, over 100 world-renowned designers, including Calvin Klein, Dieter Rams, and Norman Foster, filed an amicus brief in support of Apple in the lawsuit. The designers argued that a product's visual design has "powerful effects on the human mind and decision making processes," citing a 1949 study that showed more than 99% of Americans could identify a bottle of Coca-Cola by shape alone.

Article Link: Samsung Owes Apple $120 Million in Longstanding Slide-to-Unlock Lawsuit

 

[WordsmithMR]

So basically Samsung owes them lunch.

 

[nunes013]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

 

[LukasValine]

And then apple kills slide to unlock. RIP beautiful UX design.

 

[Roller]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

In this case, a huge caravan will show up at Apple HQ filled with Galaxy Note 7s. It will be led by Christophe Waltz.

 

[GeneralChang]

Holy cow these lawsuits. They just keep going, and going, and going, and...

 

[Juicy Box]

And then apple kills slide to unlock. RIP beautiful UX design.

How did Apple kill it, iOS 10?

 

[DaveN]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

Usually by wire transfer.

I think it is interesting that the basis for the ruling is "That was a wrong decision, the court ruled Friday, because it relied on issues that were never raised on appeal or on information that was beyond the trial record." The court isn't really saying that the points were valid or not but that the judge shouldn't have overturned the jury verdicts because his basis for overturning them wasn't entered into the record during the trial. Samsung should be very upset with their trial attorneys for not including everything in the original trial.

 

[jdillings]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

Small, unmarked bills, in brown paper bags

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

So basically Samsung owes them lunch.

This made me think of an interesting way of looking at this.

Apple has 115K employees. Divide the $120M they won from this and it works out to just over $1K per employee.

That should cover lunches for a month or six, depending on where they choose to get their lunch.

(And I know you can spend a lot more than $1K in a month for lunch... I know there are places where you could spend all that in one meal. But I figure $35 for lunch is a reasonable upper bound...)

 

[Juicy Box]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

I was thinking large barrels filled with cash buried in the NM desert. Breaking Bad style.

 

[mazz0]

I can't believe you can get a patent on parsing text for links and making them clickable. Utterly ridiculous.

 

[asleep]

Patent troll lawsuits breed more patent trolls.

 

[GeneralChang]

How did Apple kill it, iOS 10?

For me they killed it when they introduced TouchID on the 5s.

 

[gigapocket1]

For me they killed it when they introduced TouchID on the 5s.

I agree..

But Samsung has been taking a lot of L's lately

 

[redscull]

And then apple kills slide to unlock. RIP beautiful UX design.

How do you unlock an iPhone before iOS 10? Elegant slide.
How do you unlock an iPhone with iOS 10? You mash the home button repeatedly with intermixed momentary pauses in case it needs your fingerprint in one or more steps until you're finally in.

 

[macduke]

I can't believe you can get a patent on parsing text for links and making them clickable. Utterly ridiculous.

I'm primarily a designer, so this probably isn't the best code, and only works with full urls, but I wrote this simple PHP in a few minutes:

$string = 'Testing to see if I can find a link somewhere http://google.com and activate it within text.';
$pattern = '/(http:\/\/|https:\/\/)(\S+)/';
$replace = '<a href="$1$2">$1$2</a>';
echo preg_replace($pattern, $replace, $string);

I'm a man on the run now!

 

[SMIDG3T]

Which equates to £1.20 to Apple and Samsung.

 

[naeS1Sean]

I'm starting to feel that sympathy that I feel with Blackberry for Samsung...

 

[Analog Kid]

Patent troll lawsuits breed more patent trolls.

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

 

[usarioclave]

If they keep suing each other and winning they'll both make out, because the fine counts as an expense.

As a note, I have a bunch of Android phones at work and the Android equivalent of slide to lock, at least in KitKat/Lollipop, sucks. Apple's was really a much better idea, which is why Google copied it. I actually miss it in iOS 10; the home button thing is still kind of weird. Of course, I've been unlocking my phone with a swipe since the beginning. Change is hard.

 

[scoobydoo99]

Holy cow these lawsuits. They just keep going, and going, and going, and...

that is by design. it's just part of business. they violate patents intentionally, price the later court judgements into their business plan, and rake in billions in profit in the meantime. all companies operate this way. I wish people wouldn't get upset and think this is somehow unusual or unexpected. believe me, the corporations don't think it's nearly as unusual or worrisome as many forum posters seem to.

 

[gixxerfool]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

I'm shocked I'm the only one to like this.

 

[2457282]

I have always wondered how large amounts get transferred from company to company? Especially when they are in the billions. Anyone have an idea?

My guess is that they will load up a Galaxy Note7 un-charged with all the money in the form of bitcoins and mail it to Tim's office. Upon opening the box, a note will say please charge to receive your prize.

BOOM!

 

[MH01]

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.

Kinda. Imagine if the car was invented now ..... it would demonstrate how flawed the patent system is when something like a window or wheel and use cases behind it is owned by only one company.

Im just glad desktop and laptops designs were already matured before these patent wars began between major IT companies .