The California trial of Samsung versus Apple is drawing to an end – another tense phase in the legal war between the two giants. Samsung, following their statement of precisely how much they expect to receive in the event that they win the infringement suites, has now rested its case. The sum in question: a whopping $421.8 million. That’s quite a chunk of change, but still considerably less than what Apple is asking for: a jaw-dropping 2.5 billion dollars.
So what’s the deal here? Samsung is claiming that Apple infringed upon five of its patents. Three of these cover utilities such as music playback, browsing photos and email. Because Samsung has not suffered a loss of sales as a result of Apple’s infringements of these patents, Samsung is claiming only enough cash to cover what Apple should have been charged by Samsung for licensing the royalties. The bill for this: a mere $22.8 million.
The big bucks being demanded by Samsung are for the infringements of the other two UMT patents. Apple has argues that these patents should be offered under fair use, as they are standards-essential patents.
Whoever comes out as right or wrong in this case, it’s obvious that the huge sums being demanded on both sides are intended as a chastisement of the other. A touch of ‘teaching a lesson’ and ‘showing who’s boss’. Another, less wealthy, company might be tempted to settle out of court, given how much money is in the balance here. But neither Samsung nor Apple got where they are today by being like other companies. Anybody out there willing to predict who’s going to come out on top? Or will a last minute agreement to settle out of court be made in the 11th hour?
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