Samsung ordered to pay Apple a further $290M in patent case

A Silicon Valley jury on Thursday ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple an additional $290 million in damages for copying features of the iPhone and iPad.

The verdict covers 13 older Samsung devices that a previous jury found were among 26 products that infringed Apple patents. The sum is further to a $640 million figure that the South Korea-based company already owed Apple in damages from a previous trial.

Apple was previously awarded over $1 billion in an earlier patent suit against Samsung, but district court judge Lucy Koh reduced the damages to $640 million after ruling that the jury miscalculated the amount owed on 13 devices and ordered a new trial.

Samsung plans to appeal the verdicts, totaling $930 million in damages.

It’s the latest twist in a patent battle that has been raging between Apple and rivals Samsung and Google since before the death of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs in 2011.

Google, which makes the Android operating system Samsung uses in its products, has been accused of stealing the idea from Apple. So far, Apple has not sued Google, opting instead to go after handset makers like Samsung and others in court.

In the latest case, Apple asked for $380 million, arguing Samsung's copying cost it a significant amount of sales. Samsung countered that it owed only $52 million because the features at issue weren't the reasons most consumers chose to buy Samsung's devices over Apple's.

Samsung plans to appeal both verdicts.

Apple and Samsung are the world's two biggest smartphone makers. The bitter rivals have been waging a global battle for supremacy of the $300 billion worldwide market.

"For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet said. "While it's impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."

A third trial is scheduled for March to consider Apple's claims that Samsung's latest devices, such as the popular Galaxy S III, also copied Apple's technology.

"We understood that the money wasn't really an issue," said juror Barry Goldman-Hall.

Goldman-Hall, 60, was one of two men and six women on the jury, which was tasked only with determining damages.

"This was about the integrity of the patent process."

Apple has argued in courts around the world that Samsung's Android-based phones copy vital iPhone features. Samsung is fighting back with its own complaints that some key Apple patents are invalid and Apple has copied Samsung's technology.

Samsung lawyer William Price argued Apple is misconstruing the breadth of its patents to include such things as basic rectangle shape of most smartphones.

"Apple doesn't own beautiful and sexy," Price told the San Jose jury.

South Korea-based Samsung has twice sought to stop the trial, accusing Apple on Tuesday of unfairly trying to inflame patriotic passions by urging jurors to help protect American companies from overseas competitors.

The judge denied Samsung's request for a mistrial, but did reread an instruction ordering jurors to put aside their dislikes and biases in deciding the case.  

On Wednesday, Samsung again demanded a halt to the trial after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office told Apple it was planning to invalidate a patent protecting the "pinch-to-zoom" feature at issue in the jury's deliberation. The judge ordered more briefing while declining to stop the trial.

Al Jazeera and The Associated Press