Samsung must pay Apple US$539 million dollars for infringing patents related to the iPhone’s design, a US federal jury found. The decision in the US District Court in San Jose, California increases the amount that Samsung previously was ordered to pay Apple for the patents under dispute, from US$399 million to US$539 million, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The bulk of the new damages award, US$533.3 million, was for infringing three Apple design patents on the iPhone. An additional US$5.3 million was for infringing two utility patents.
The jury’s new award was in the middle of the possible range. Samsung, which was found six years ago to have infringed Apple’s patents, had argued in the current case that it should have to pay a penalty of only US$28 million. Apple sought US$1.05 billion.
Samsung said the ruling “flies in the face” of an earlier Supreme Court decision it obtained on the scope of design patent damages. In 2016, the Supreme Court found that the holder of a design patent wasn’t always entitled to the total profit of an infringing product sold to consumers.
Samsung said in a statement it will “consider all options to obtain an outcome that does not hinder creativity and fair competition for all companies and consumers.”
Apple said it was pleased the jury agreed that Samsung should pay damages for patent infringement, saying “Samsung blatantly copied our design.”
