One of Apple's patent disputes with Samsung has finally come to a close, with the U.S. Supreme Court turning down Samsung's appeal in the $120 million slide-to-unlock patent infringement case. The initial ruling was delivered in 2014, and while Samsung was able to overturn the verdict back in 2016, a federal appeals court reinstated the original ruling a few months later.
Samsung now has to pay $120 million in damages to Apple for infringing on two patents: the slide-to-unlock gesture and the quick links patent, which turns addresses and phone numbers into interactive links. The final amount is a fraction of the $2 billion Apple's lawyers demanded during the trial, but Samsung isn't all that pleased with the outcome:
Our argument was supported by many who believed that the Court should hear the case to reinstate fair standards that promote innovation and prevent abuse of the patent system.
Although this particular battle is concluded, the lengthy patent war between the two companies is far from ending. The design patent dispute — wherein Apple claimed that Samsung copied the design of the iPhone — is set to go back to court in May 2018, with Samsung able to whittle the damages to $400 million from an initial $930 million. We'll have that to look forward to next year.
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