Submitted by Jon Reed on
The four week Apple v Samsung trial came to an end last Friday, after three days of jury deliberation. The verdict awarded Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) $119 million in damages, just a fraction of the $2.2 billion the company was seeking. Prompted by the judge's suggestion that it may have contained some errors, the jurors reconfirmed the verdict on Monday, after making several modifications to their calculations, but leaving the total the same. Even so, Samsung intends to fight the decision.
According to Bloomberg, Samsung attorney John Quinn announced in a statement that the company will ask the trial judge to reduce the damages to zero. Quinn said of the $119M in damages awarded to Apple, "Of course we’re pleased that the jury awarded Apple 6 percent of what they were asking for, but even that can’t stand, because Apple kept out all the real world evidence and didn’t produce anything to
substitute for it, so you have a verdict that’s unsupported by evidence -– and that’s just one of its problems.” Aside from the dollar amount, the verdict opens the door for Apple to seek a legal order to ban U.S. sales of the devices in question. This includes Samsung's Galaxy S III, Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note and Note II, and the Galaxy Tab II among others.
Quinn also said that Samsung is prepared to appeal if the trial judge does not reduce the damages. Apple has yet to comment on the matter, but spokeswoman Kristin Huguet earlier remarked that the verdict "reinforces what courts around the world have already found: that Samsung willfully stole [Apple's] ideas and copied [their] products.”
Samsung currently commands a 31 percent share of the smartphone market that was valued at $338.2 billion last year. Apple's market share has dwindled to just 15 percent as touchscreen devices have become ubiquitous and rivals have offered lower cost alternatives. A ban on U.S. sales of the offending Samsung devices could potentially shift those numbers. Apple requested such a ban after it was awarded $930 million in the first patent infringement suit against Samsung, but the judge denied it. Apple remarked at the time that the ban was more important than the damages.