It does seem that Apple’s win may be largely symbolic; Samsung told the court it had ceased selling almost all of the products that were originally at issue in the case such as the Galaxy S2 and Note 2.
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Apple argued that, if it weren’t able to control use of its inventions, it may lose market share and its reputation as an innovator. However, given the fact that a lot of these products aren’t even selling on the market right now, a ban wouldn’t do much good to Apple anyway. Despite that, the trial judge refused to compel Samsung to eliminate them from its devices.
The acrimony dates back to the reign of Apple’s late CEO Steve Jobs, who contended that Google had ripped off the iPhone’s innovations to use in Android, a free mobile operating system that Samsung uses in its smartphones.
Although the U.S. court agreed that Samsung violated Apple’s patents for slide-to-unlock, autocorrect, and converting text into hyperlinks, the judge ruled against the iPhone maker’s bid to have the offending devices pulled from sale.
“The right to exclude competitors from using one’s property rights is important”, Judge Kimberly Moore wrote in Thursday’s majority opinion. “Samsung willfully stole our ideas and copied our products”, Apple said in a statement. The court does not consider its verdict as extremely harsh and adds that Samsung has the option to remove features from its phones, that infringe patents. The case resulted in nearly $120 million in damages, a hefty number but only 5 percent of what Apple was asking for.
However, the recent decision admitted that the previous court should have taken into account whether these unique features of Apple will shift consumers away from Apple to Samsung. Apple did not establish that that these features were the exclusive or significant driver of customer demand, which certainly would have weighed more heavily in its favor.
The impact of yesterday’s decision on Samsung could be limited because the company has been bracing for a possible injunction, said Michael Risch, a professor of law at Villanova University School of Law.
The public won’t be deprived of Samsung phones, in any case, as the company “can effect the removal of the patented features without recalling any products”. Samsung launched a countersuit, but ultimately Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages.
The jury in May 2014 found all of Samsung’s accused gadgets infringed Apple’s ‘647 “quick links” patent but that none infringed the ‘959 “universal search” patent or the ‘414 “background sync” patent.
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Thursday’s ruling is only the latest in a long battle (in and out of the court system) between the two tech giants that has been raging since 2011.
