14 DAY TRIAL // Apple and Samsung continue to duke it out in court over whether or not the other is guilty of patent infringement, or using the other’s intellectual property without permission. Yet again, Samsung is the one taking a beating.
The picture painted by the two once allies is pretty grim, for Samsung anyway. We're pretty certain that the folks at Apple are grinning and rubbing their palms as we speak. Or write.
Anyway, the two have been fighting in court for years, occasionally wresting a ruling from the hands of whichever judge happens to be supervising their battle at the time.
Most recently, it was ruled that yes, Samsung did infringe on Apple's IP, and should, at least, pay it the sum of $120 million / €86 million to it.
The company may see some of its devices banned in the United States, and maybe some other countries too, eventually.
As you might expect, though, the South Korea-based business group is none too pleased with the ruling, and intends to contest it for as long as possible.
The situation is not really that different from the previous ruling, although the sum that Samsung is supposed to pay is about a tenth of the damages that Apple managed to wrest that time.
Granted, Samsung hasn't paid anything yet, since it's still appealing the decision, but at least it has managed to reduce the sum to 6% of the original.
Not that it's enough. Samsung is adamant that it should pay Apple nothing, that it did not, in fact, infringe any smartphone and tablet design patents.
We can't really say if it's one or the other. If it had been easy, the courts would have said so a long time ago. In fact, if Samsung was going to obviously take some of Apple tech for its own use, it would have likely paid licensing services and avoided this whole situation.
Alas, the spat that was started when Samsung released its “obvious” imitation of the Apple iPad (Samsung Galaxy Tab) has well and truly mutated into a fierce game of judicial tug-of-war, one that probably won't end for another few years. And even then, it's likely that the two will find some other poor patent to use as pretext for another lawsuit or two. Or ten.
All in a day's work for the technology industry really. At least Samsung isn't risking a relapse, so to speak. Meaning that it's not in danger of having the court decide that the one billion ruling of September 2012 should be revisited.