Patent Wars III: Return of the iPhone

In the most recent iteration of the titanic intellectual property battle between technology giants Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics, apple took home a $290 million jury verdict.

The case (Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (.PDF), centered on Samsung’s alleged infringement of six of Apple’s patents (U.S. Patent Nos. 7,469,381; 7,844,915; 7,864,163; D604,305; and D618,677).

Over the course of the proceedings, the jury calculated damages based on infringement caused by sixteen different Samsung devices: Galaxy Prevail, Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, and Transform. The Infuse 4G was the largest infringer, accounting for one third of the total damages.

In determining the damages, the jury was instructed to put Apple in the financial position they would have been had the infringement not occurred. More precisely, the jury had to figure out how much Samsung’s infringement cost Apple. The jury made this determination by considering: (1) reasonable royalty rates, (2) Apple’s lost profits , and (3) Samsung’s unfairly attained profits.

This is the second major financial blow to Samsung in 2013, as a different jury trial awarded Apple $1,000,000,000 in damages for infringements created by 26 Samsung products 9however, this award was later reduced to $550 million). Even though Samsung is an enormous multi-billion dollar company, it will be interesting to see how the financial repercussions from these cases affect their products and market share. Stay tuned for the next installment of: THE PATENT WARS.