Apple v. Samsung comes to an end

In April of last year, Apple filed a patent lawsuit against Samsung. Apple had claimed that Samsung has breached patented copyright infringements on Apple products such as the iPhone and iPad. Apple says that the designs found on Samsung products such as the Galaxy Phone and Galaxy Tab are similar to its patent drawings. In retaliation, Samsung filed a counter-suit claiming that Apple was the one who stole patents.

Back in July, Samsung tried to release images to the courts proving that it had prototype devices that dated from before the iPhone was released. Samsung does not say if the prototype was patented or not but the Judge asked for the jury to be excluded from seeing the images.

After about a year and a half, the nine-people (seven men and two women) jury has come to a conclusion. The jury has sided with Apple and concluded that Samsung is in patent violation and must pay $1.08 billion dollars to Apple for damages. Apple originally asked for $2.75 billion for damages but will have to settle at $1.08 billion. With the victory for Apple it is looking to regain that lead it had on Samsung in the mobile market. As for Samsung’s counter-suit, it came to a stand-still and it received nothing.

Apple has always protected its patents very closely, just like any other company would. Apple’s main goal is to go after Google. Google is the developer of the popular Android OS which is ran on Samsung’s mobile devices; as well as many other devices. Before Steve Jobs passed away, he said to the public that Google’s Android OS was a “rip-off of Apple products”. It’s anybody’s guess if Apple will sue Google or not; although it now has plenty of money to do so.