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A US jury has decided Samsung must pay Apple $539 million (€462 million) in damages in the latest twist of a legal battle that began in 2011.
Apple contends Samsung would not have emerged as the world’s leading seller of smartphones if it had not ripped off the technology powering the pioneering iPhone in developing a line of similar devices running on Google’s Android software.
Previous rulings had already determined that Samsung infringed on some of Apple’s patents, but the amount of damages owed has been hanging in legal limbo.
Another jury convened for a 2012 trial had determined Samsung should pay Apple $1.05 billion, but US district judge Lucy Koh reduced that amount to $548 million.
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The issue escalated to the US Supreme Court, which determined in 2016 that a lower court needed to re-examine $399 million of the $548 million.
That ruling was based on the concept that the damages should not be based on all the profits that the South Korean electronics giant rang up from products that copied the iPhone because its infringement may have violated only a few patents.
Apple had argued it was owed more than $1 billion dollars while Samsung contended the $399 million should be slashed to $28 million.
The revised damages figure represents a victory for Apple, even though it is not as much as the Cupertino, California, company had sought. – AP
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