Apple Inc scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung on Friday as an American jury found the South Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the United States company $1.05 billion in damages.
The verdict, which came after less than three days of jury deliberations, could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple’s dominance of the exploding mobile computing market.
Apple’s victory is a big blow to Google, whose Android software powers the Samsung products that were found to infringe on Apple patents. Google and its hardware partners, including the company’s own Motorola unit, could now face further legal hurdles in their effort to compete with the Apple juggernaut.
Samsung lawyers were grim-faced in the crowded San Jose courtroom as the order was read. The company later called it “a loss for the American consumer” and vowed it would challenge the verdict.
The jury deliberated less than three days before delivering the verdict on seven Apple patent claims and five Samsung patent claims — suggesting that the nine-person panel had little difficulty in concluding that Samsung had copied the iPhone and the iPad. Since the panel found “wilful” infringement, Apple could seek triple damages.
Apple upended the mobile phone business when it introduced the iPhone in 2007, and shook the industry again in 2010 when it rolled out the iPad. It has been able to charge premium prices for the iPhone — with profit margins of as much as 58 per cent per phone — for a product consumers regarded as a huge advance in design and usability.
The company’s late founder, Steve Jobs, vowed to “go to thermonuclear war” when Google launched Android, according to his biographer, and Apple filed lawsuits around the world in an effort to block what it considers brazen copying of its inventions.
Shares in Apple, which this week became the biggest company by market value in history, climbed almost two per cent to a record high of $675 in after-hours trade.
Apple’s victory could present immediate issues for companies selling Android-based smartphones and tablets, including Google’s Motorola subsidiary, which it acquired last year for $12.5 billion, and HTC of Taiwan.