Lost in the hubbub besiege Apple ’s legal wrangling with the FBI is the fact that Apple is presently involved in another high - visibility court shell — the caller ’s on-going patent difference with Samsung over various iPhone - related patents .
On Friday , the US Court of Appeals tossed a near $ 120 million sagacity against Samsung , Bloomberg written report , ruling that two gainsay letters patent hold by Apple were not valid .
According to Bloomberg , the invalidated letters patent in enquiry include one that traverse the “ slide to unlock ” mechanics on the iPhone .
As a final result of this latest opinion , Bloomberg notes , “ Samsung does n’t have to spell another check to Apple ” on these special patent claims , and wo n’t have to modify the software on new or existing Galaxy devices in club to avoid infringing on these now - void letters patent . Bloomberg also notes that Apple owe Samsung $ 158,400 “ for impinge a Samsung patent on video recording compression . ”
The story behind the level : The two companies have been operate in a legal battle for several years now , with Apple say that Samsung infringed on multiple iPhone - related patents with its Galaxy line of smartphones . In 2012 , a US District Court ruled thatSamsung owed Apple over $ 1 billion in damages . The amount owed was later on cut to $ 930 million , and last May , an appeals homage ruledthat Samsung would not be on the draw to compensate the full amount .
In December of last twelvemonth , Samsung did agree to pay Apple $ 548 million , under the condition that it “ reserved the right to gather reimbursement if there are any further development in the case , ” as our John Ribeiro reported at the time . A week and a half later , Samsung asked the Supreme Court to hear an appeal on a freestanding letters patent infringement payout it would otherwise have to make .
In other parole , although the status of two finical patents are no longer in head , this legal Georgia home boy opera is far from over .
