Jury Finds Largely in Favor of Apple in Apple vs. Samsung Trial, Awards More than $1 Billion in Damages

[cjmillsnun]

Next up, AT&T sues Apple for blue boxes.

They can't as Apple didn't make a single blue box. Apple was formed after Jobs and Woz stopped making blue boxes.

AT&T could sue Woz over blue boxes, but I doubt they are going to.

 

[bushido]

Apple basically wants Samsung gone from the smartphone market. I mean they could build something with a keyboard that works like an old BlackBerry, but this is pretty much the end of Samsung touch screen products.

Apple isn't going to stop until the last competitor drops. They want 100% marketshare. It is worth spending all their reserves at this point to get there. Imagine no competition... They can price how they want and take as long as they want introducing a new model. They could make money like no corporation ever has.

As far as a monopoly goes... They would claim that anyone is free to make a phone as long as it does not use any sort of touchscreen capabilities.

Of course one thing to remember is that Google now owns Motorola Mobility and they own patents that actually make the phone make an actual phone call. I guess we will see where this all goes. Apple hasn't gone too hard after Moto or Google yet, but I predict with this victory they are going nuclear on everyone until they own the entire market.

but isnt only the US affected by this ruling? and not even their latest gadgets like the SIII + i always thought the biggest market for Samsung is in Asia and Europe anyway

OR they could just license it from apple which they probably won't allow

 

[Melrose]

My new SMART Board 800 has pinch to zoom. Is Apple going to sue SMART now?

I have no cue, but that's not my point.

 

[Reach9]

For the same reasons you don't let programmers write user manuals. They wouldn't be able to objectively apply the user experience to the process and thats mostly what this trial is about. Droids/Iphones are for users.

Gotcha, so this is about user experience. And since Apple has such a major following this trial was decided before it even began then.

 

[Gandir]

Your view is simplistic. Apple is Samsung and LG's biggest customer. You think Samsung and LG will stop selling to Apple because they are pissed off about losing one or more lawsuits? Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. If LG or Samsung choose to stop selling components to Apple, they will quickly find themselves on the losing side of that decision.

Will they? when they them self will have a spike in sales from it? When apple cannot get a single screen to there phones then Samsung will be bigger and bigger so goes for LG because the have screens.

And if Apple score this victory in the end, that I don't believe they will tho. They will come a threat to Samsung Int. not just Samsung Mobile. Samsung Mobile is the biggest cash cow for Samsung as it's right now. So that practice can be changed fast if this verdict will stand in higher court. Also if the go after LG and there phone market they will protect them self as well since its a very big part of there businesses as well.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

If Apple gets defined as owning too much of the essential pieces of smartphone design, you can expect anti-trust action against Apple eventually. First in Europe, then the U.S. will pile on. If it happened to Microsoft, it can happen to Apple.

Being the biggest gorilla in the room doesn't automatically make you guilty of anti-trust. What you do in that position, and how you relate to your customers and suppliers, and whether you use your influential position to strong arm others into capitulating… now that's different. Apple can completely own the smartphone market with its patents and be a good corporate citizen at the same time.

 

[Drunken Master]

No, it's stupid to say things like that.

Can I downvote your post?

Pretty please?

 

[linkgx1]

KnightWRX, I noticed you stopped posting as soon as it became painfully clear that Samesung...I mean Samsung wasn't going to recover from this one.
I get it. I'm from Canada too. I like going for the underdog. Going against companies that get big, when before they were small. Rooting for the one that seems to be unjustly persecuted - even if the evidence is overwhelmingly supporting the contrary.

You defend your posts with the stance of "objectivity". Looking at the evidence "neutrally", in a nonpartisan manner. Being free of bias. Maybe that crap flies where your from, but every last post you make is laced with bias. I see right through the facade you so delicately build and I understand. Things will get better...at least Samsung can appeal right? They always have that move. Then we can go back to the "being objective" song and dance. It's ok to be an Android fan, just don't be in the closet about it. No one is going to judge you because of your choices. Macrumors is a safe place - though a unconventional place to be a Fandroid - but a equal opportunity Android/iOS liking space none-the-less.

Way to judge people. Didn't know what WRX did was against the terms of agreement.


Again, the case is not over. Apple will eventually touch the wrong person. But unless I'M getting the billions, I DON'T CARE!

 

[SpectatorHere]

Apple basically wants Samsung gone from the smartphone market. I mean they could build something with a keyboard that works like an old BlackBerry, but this is pretty much the end of Samsung touch screen products.

Apple isn't going to stop until the last competitor drops. They want 100% marketshare. It is worth spending all their reserves at this point to get there. Imagine no competition... They can price how they want and take as long as they want introducing a new model. They could make money like no corporation ever has.

As far as a monopoly goes... They would claim that anyone is free to make a phone as long as it does not use any sort of touchscreen capabilities.

Of course one thing to remember is that Google now owns Motorola Mobility and they own patents that actually make the phone make an actual phone call. I guess we will see where this all goes. Apple hasn't gone too hard after Moto or Google yet, but I predict with this victory they are going nuclear on everyone until they own the entire market.

Apple might want Samsung out of the smartphone market, but they're smart enough to know that's not possible. This is just negotiation, don't get hung up in the win/loss legal side of it. This isn't how courts are used 99% of the time, it's just strategy and competition these days.

I would venture that Apple and Samsung are MORE likely to even CLOSER aligned than they were previously due to this. They will have to settle and it isn't as if one of them is going out of business.

 

[scoobydoo99]

That is quite plainly false, as Samsung demonstrated with prior art.

Samsung obviously didn't "demonstrate" it - the jury didn't believe them. haha.

 

[AZREOSpecialist]

My new SMART Board 800 has pinch to zoom. Is Apple going to sue SMART now?

Does your local police arrest everyone who breaks the law? Does your highway patrol pull over every single driver who exceeds the speed limit? Of course not. This verdict is designed to SCARE the balls out of any company that would consider using Android. That is the whole point of this lawsuit.

 

[KPOM]

can someone please answer the most important part ... are the devices BANNED or is it simply about money?

No one knows yet. They are still arguing over details of the verdict. Only after it is settled will the judge consider things such as staying the verdict or issuing injunctions. The jury trial is about damages (a question of law). Injunctions are an equitable remedy, and are decided separately.

 

[SpectatorHere]

Google is already using their ownership of Motorola Mobility to sue Apple

There you go! And guess what, they'll both continue to sue one another and work together at the same time.

It's a weird and seemingly very inefficient way to do business...but this is how it's done these days.

 

[Abazigal]

Anyways, Samsung is far from dead. They seem to have move beyond copying apple (at least, I find their S3 phone looks nothing like the iPhone) and going forward, I think this will be how they differentiate themselves - through phones with larger screens and possibly styluses.

 

[Diode]

Do you really think a company in a competition for product sales sits idly by waiting for their competitor to come out with their next product...so they can starting planning how they are going to defend it...and then take even longer to design and produce it. In you thought process the cycle would take just as long or longer.

Yes, I do believe the patent system allows market leaders such as Apple to stretch out their product lines. It's how they can milk people into buying each new phone with minimum new features - and why Apples product cycle is yearly.

Several other, much smarter people then I will ever be, think the same. Patents slow the rate of innovation.

Can Patents Deter Innovation? The Anticommons in Biomedical Research
Patent length and the rate of innovation
Sequential innovation, patents, and imitation

And hundreds of others...

 

[Judas1]

Read up, for f's sake. Apple DID offer Samsung to license the patents,and more than that Apple already licenses the patents to Microsoft.
What do you mean with "Apple is not into the licensing game"?

It means exactly what it means. They don't like to license any of their patents. They don't like to share ideas. They are a secretive company. The sad part is that they can do this because their patents are predominately not innovative. The truly innovative tech patents become part of FRAND and are forced to be licensed out.

 

[MacNewsFix]

I don't see how this verdict can be anything but a good things for consumers no matter what OS you use.

Steve Jobs stepped down from Apple one year ago today. Poetic.

 

[Gandir]

Samsung obviously didn't "demonstrate" it - the jury didn't believe them. haha.

Well they did, but the jury did not understand it, they are not people that are experts in patent laws or any laws for that matter they are a jury of peers ordinary people. And most ordinary people would not understand a bit of what that trial was about.

It was held a couple of miles away from Apple headquarter to start with, and it's an american company vs an asian company. If you don't understand the issue you go with national pride.

 

[CrockettGTO]

Sad.....after owning every iPhone and iPad Apple made
Now this makes me want to buy a Galaxy S3

 

[zaphon]

That's nonsense. You can clearly build smartphones without infringing on any of Apple's patents. All it takes is a bit of innovation.




They want Samsung gone from the "smartphones that look exactly the same as an iPhone" market.

You mean black rectangles? I seriously want to meet the people that can't tell the difference between an iPhone and a Samsung phone, as I am having a hard time believing they exist.

As for the ruling, I didn't expect anything different from a country that allowed the patents in the first place.

 

[Windlasher]

Gotcha, so this is about user experience. And since Apple has such a major following this trial was decided before it even began then.

NO, Im saying that apple spent a LOT of time figuring out "the little things" that made the iphone work. Samsung spent twenty minutes ripping one apart to figure out how it worked.

The original document where they showed all the comments by SS engineers comparing it to the iphone and what to change. If they had presented an additional document showing how they compared it to a NOKIA or Microsoft, or LG phone, it would have given them more credibility.

 

[Technarchy]

If Apple sues everyone and the courts tell them to stop selling their products, Apple will have a monopoly. Because Apple is going to use the fact that they won this case to sue other people. Eventually, Apple will be the only smartphone provider.

Why don't I see Nokia and MSFT having problems?

Android has the problem. I would call that a clue.

 

[Aegelward]

Honestly, it'd have been cheaper for Apple to just pay a PMC to blow up all of Samsung's facilities.

Why have a pyrrhic victory when you can have a decisive one?

 

[Peace]

It means exactly what it means. They don't like to license any of their patents. They don't like to share ideas. They are a secretive company. The sad part is that they can do this because their patents are predominately not innovative. The truly innovative tech patents become part of FRAND and are forced to be licensed out.

Sorta like the working mpeg group that Apple is part of.

 

[kdarling]

...what a stupid jury. No offense, but shouldn't they have got technologists as jurors for this trial?

This is exactly why respected IP jurists such as Posner believe that off the street juries should not decide patent validity and infringement.

Heck, experienced patent reviewers, such as the ITC has, take weeks to figure out a single patent's infringement, much less its validity.

This California jury decided validity, infringement and payments for multiple patents in less than three days.

I wonder what would've happened if they didn't get to just check off boxes, but instead had to actually explain their findings in detail, just as real patent reviewers must.