Apple filed suit against Samsung on 2011 saying that it has copied Apple's look and feel of its iPhones and iPads. Apple had nine-person jury on its side so it was awarded $1.05 billion in damages.
In 2012, Apple filed suit against Samsung agains saying that it was infringing several patents. It said that Samsung was copying its technology and products, features, and designs. Samsung however countered with a suit saying that Apple is trying to hurt competition by targeting it for litigation. It also claims Apple has infringed some of its patents.
In this suit, it has been found that a lot of the items that Apple claim as infringed items are part of Android, or Google's mobile OS. The reason why Apple doesn't sue Google is because Google itself doesn't make its own phones or tablets, so it would rather take on a rival that sells physical devices using Android. Samsung will also argue that Google had invented the features before Apple patented them.
So there were seven patents at issue in this case. Five held by Apple and two by Samsung. The trial came to an end last year May 5th. And as for the winner of the case, there isn't a clear one. This time around, the judges didn't allow for damage fines as large as the $1 billion from 2011. Both companies had to pay each other a set of fines.
Hi Michael,
ReplyDeleteI thought your point about the fact that it was interesting to see how Google has somehow managed to stay clear and above Samsung and Apple in this entire controversy was quite interesting. It seems that Google has a direct hand in play when it comes to the production of most features found in both phones and the fact that the operating system in almost all Samsung phones is Android, or Google's own OS, makes it even more remarkable how Google has stayed clear of this mess. Google's ability to stay out of the hardware controversy truly keeps it safe from the grips of Apple's lawsuits.