Apple claims victory in Samsung patent dispute, but verdict less clear-cut
US jury orders Samsung to pay iPhone maker US$120 million, but also finds for Korean firm
A US jury has ordered Samsung Electronics to pay Apple US$119.6 million, far less than what Apple sought and marking a big loss for the iPhone maker in the latest round of its globe-spanning mobile patent litigation.
In a mixed verdict, jurors also found credence in Samsung's counterclaims, ordering Apple to pay its rival US$158,400 in damages.
Apple portrayed the verdict as a victory that "reinforces what courts around the world have already found: that Samsung wilfully stole our ideas and copied our products".
Samsung declined to comment as it was "inappropriate" to do so before the deliberations' official end, which is expected tomorrow after jurors tend to a missing entry in damages calculations on the verdict form.
The outcome is sharply different from a 2012 patent trial in the same court. Unlike the previous case in which Apple was a clear winner, this time Samsung prevailed in many areas.
Apple's legal team had urged jurors to make the South Korean electronics giant pay more than US$2 billion in damages for flagrantly copying iPhone features.
Samsung lawyers maintained that the legal onslaught emerged from a "holy war" Apple declared on Google-made Android software that power smartphones.
