WAR: Apple and Samsung guilty of theft

In the ongoing international patent battle between multinationals the results are predictable as USA damage awards are extremely high and legal results in various countries vary on exactly the same sets of facts.

In the USA a court found that Samsung stole Apple technology and in South Korea a court found that Apple stole technology from Samsung.

During April 2011 Apple claimed R20 Billion and filed a case against Samsung for theft of Apple technology and Samsung fired back with a R3192 million suit against Apple, for theft of Samsung wireless technology.

On Friday, a Jury of 12 people in California USA, found that Samsung did steal innovative technology from Apple and that Apple did not steal wireless technology from Samsung.
The jury awarded a sum of R8,4 Billion (R8400 million) in damages to Apple.

Also on Friday, in Seoul South Korea, a court ruled that Apple stole wireless technology from Samsung and awarded small amounts of damages. Samsung filed a theft case against Apple and it was found that Apple stole wireless technology from Samsung, that court also found that Samsung stole technology from Apple, notably the functionality that the screen bounces back when reaching the end of an image.

In the USA, Apple claimed R20 Billion when they filed the case in April 2011 and Samsung fired back with a R3192 million suit against Apple, for theft of Samsung wireless technology and the jury found that some of the main things that Samsung stole from Apple is ‘the ability to zoom text with a finger tap’ and the functionality that ‘the screen bounces back when reaching the end of an image’. In Seoul, the court awarded only small amounts of damages against both Apple and Samsung.

But that it not the real victory: In South Korea the court ordered Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.

In the USA, the results could be devastating for Samsung as sales bans on it’s products may result in Apple again becoming the dominant smartphone vendor.