Apple Handed $1.05 Billion Verdict In Samsung Patent Case

This just in, the just in the $2.5 billion Apple Vs Samsung patent case has ended deliberation and awarded Apple a judgement to the tune of $1,051,855,000 USD ($1.05B USD).

Samsung has been found guilt of violating several of Apple technology patents for most of its smartphone and tablet devices including '301 (all of Samsung's devices), '381 (all of Samsung's devices), '905 (almost all of Samsung's devices) , and '163 (some devices, but not others).

On the flip side the jury found Apple innocent of infringing on Samsung's '711, '893, '460, and '516 patents. Samsung was found innocent of antitrust violations for litigating with its 3G and 4G standards patents, but it was barred from future litigation ("patent exhaustion").

What this all means and what's next?

Judge Lucy Koh has yet to deliver a final ruling, which may or may not ease some of the settlement costs. What will likely happen is going to be several product bans. Meaning Samsung will likely have to pull product from store shelves. Samsung will undoubtedly file for an appeal, but it's likely to lose billions in the meantime.

The damages aren't really the worst part of this for Samsung or for that matter for the rest of the smartphone world. The very bad part for everyone outside of Apple is that Apple's patents have now stood the litigation test and could potentially be enforceable in other cases. Once a case sets precedence it's rare that its not upheld in future cases.

What this means is that we'll likely see several more smartphone vendors being hit with litigation. We could virtually see all smartphones that violate Apple's patents banned from sale in the U.S., pending software and design modifications. This could literally cost companies several billions of dollars in lost sales and could even shut down some companies altogether.