Jury awards Apple $290 million in Samsung patent case

SAN JOSÉ – A US federal jury Thursday ordered Samsung to pay $290 million in damages to Apple in a partial retrial of the blockbuster patent case involving the two smartphone giants.

The award comes instead of $450 million in damages originally awarded in the landmark suit, but thrown out by a judge. It is in addition to nearly $600 million in patent infringement damages upheld from the trial last year.

Apple has accused its South Korean rival of massive and wilful copying of its designs and technology for smartphones and tablets and won the landmark case in a jury decision in August 2012. But the case has been on hold pending multiple appeals.

The original verdict for more than $1 billion was reduced in March when Judge Lucy Koh invalidated some $450 million and ordered a retrial on portions of the case.

The six-woman, two-man jury in Koh’s courtroom in San Jose, California, reached a verdict on the third day of deliberations.

The panel was sent back to the jury room to wait while rival lawyers and the judge checked the verdict to see if there are questions or concerns before entering it into the record.

Even though Apple won the landmark case last year, this has not had much impact on the new smartphones hitting the market, though the California maker of the iPhone is seeking injunctions to bar some Samsung products from being sold in the United States.

The California case is among several pending in courts and administrative agencies around the world between the two electronics giants, each of which accuses the other of infringing on its patents.

After years of following and refining the iPhone’s pioneering innovations – a strategy that resulted in bitter patent battles with Apple – Samsung has dethroned its California-based rival to become the world’s top smartphone maker.

Samsung extended its lead over Apple in the global smartphone market in the third quarter, according to surveys.

The South Korean electronics giant increased its market share by nearly half a percentage point to 31.4 percent, according to the IDC survey. Apple sold 33.8 million iPhones in the quarter, but its growth was slower than the overall market, so its share slipped to 13.1 percent from 14.4 percent a year ago.

There was no immediate comment from Apple or Samsung to Thursday’s verdict.

In a separate legal battle, the US International Trade Commission in August blocked imports of some older model Samsung mobile devices in response to Apple’s complaints on patent violations.

The Obama administration, which had a final review in the case, upheld the decision in October.

The disputes are closely followed because the two companies are the leading players in the smartphone and tablet markets and also because Samsung products are closely aligned with the Android system created by Google, a major Apple rival.