Additional deliberations by the jury Monday in the Apple-Samsung patent trial has left the total amount of damages payable by the Korean tech giant at $119.6 million.
The jury had ordered Samsung to pay Apple the sum last Friday after deciding it had infringed several of the Cupertino company’s patents, but it was discovered the jurors had made an error by failing to award damages for a product linked to one of the infringed patents.
After a couple of hours of extra deliberations Monday, the jury wrapped up the case by ordering Samsung to pay $4 million for the overlooked product. However, it essentially shuffled around the amounts it awarded to Apple Friday, meaning the Seoul-based tech company will end up paying the same figure: $119.6 million.
Apple had been asking for $2.2 billion in the month-long trial in San Jose, California. However, after listening to arguments from both sides, the jury ordered Samsung to pay a far smaller amount for infringing two Apple patents. In addition, the judge ruled prior to the start of the trial that Samsung had infringed a third patent.
Apple, meanwhile, was ordered to pay Samsung $158,400 for infringing one of the Korean company’s patents.
Google was pulled into this latest trial after Samsung included the Mountain View company in its witness list in relation to the development of its Android mobile operating system. The Galaxy S5 maker told the jury that in fact it was Google that’d developed some of the features which Apple claimed to own.
With the iPhone maker awarded only a fraction of what it was after, many observers are calling it a win for Samsung.
Patent expert Florian Mueller of Foss Patents described the jury’s ruling as a “major blow” for Apple, and “a very good one” for Samsung.
The two companies have been fighting it out in courtrooms around the world for the last couple of years, with each accusing the other of patent infringement relating to various features on their respective mobile products.
In February, Apple boss Tim Cook and his Samsung counterpart JK Shin met face-to-face in an effort to find common ground and prevent this latest case from reaching court, but no agreement was reached.
It’s not known where the two smartphone giants will go from here in terms of future litigation, but we won’t be surprised to see both companies appeal these latest awards.
