Federal jury awards Apple $539 million in Samsung retrial News
© WikiMedia (Alvin Pingol)
Federal jury awards Apple $539 million in Samsung retrial

Following a trial in the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website], a jury returned a verdict [decision, PDF] on Thursday ordering Samsung to pay Apple approximately $539 million for infringing on Apple’s smartphone patents.

The jury awarded Apple $533,316,606 for design patent infringements and $5,325,050 for utility patent infringements.

The verdict comes in a retrial ordered after a 2016 Supreme Court decision [JURIST reports] in favor of Samsung in 2016 had remanded the case [opinion, PDF] back to the district court level for damage adjustments taking into account the court’s interpretation of “article of manufacture,” under Section 289 of the Patent Act [text, PDF].

Regarding these particular patents, Samsung has already paid $399 million to Apple and the current verdict would require an additional payment of the remaining $140 million if the verdict is upheld on appeal.

Samsung released a statement [press release] saying, “Today’s decision flies in the face of a unanimous Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung on the scope of design patent damages. We will consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”