INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Apple had alleged that Samsung violated its patents by copying the design of the iPhone.Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on
Wednesday settled a seven-year patent dispute over Apple's allegations that Samsung violated its patents by "slavishly" copying the design
of the iPhone.Terms of the settlement, filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, were not available.In May, a
US jury awarded Apple $539 million, after Samsung had previously paid Apple $399 million to compensate for patent infringement
Samsung would need to make an additional payment to Apple of nearly $140 million if the verdict was upheld.How much, if anything, Samsung
must now pay Apple under Wednesday's settlement could not immediately be learned.An Apple spokesman declined to comment on the terms of the
settlement but said Apple "cares deeply about design" and that "this case has always been about more than money." A Samsung spokeswoman
declined to comment.Apple and Samsung are rivals for the title of world's largest smartphone maker, and the dollar sums involved in the
decision are unlikely to have an impact on either's bottom line
But the case has had a lasting impact on US patent law.After a loss at trial, Samsung appealed to the US Supreme Court
In December 2016, the court sided unanimously with Samsung's argument that a patent violator does not have to hand over the entire profit it
made from stolen designs if those designs covered only certain portions of a product but not the entire object.But when the case went back
to lower court for trial this year, the jury sided with Apple's argument that, in this specific case, Samsung's profits were attributable to
the design elements that violated Apple's patents.Michael Risch, a professor of patent law at Villanova University, said that because of the
recent verdict the settlement likely called for Samsung to make an additional payment to Apple.But he said there was no clear winner in the
dispute, which involved hefty legal fees for both companies
While Apple scored a major public relations victory with an initial $1 billion verdict in 2012, Samsung also obtained rulings in its favour
and avoided an injunction that would have blocked it from selling phones in the US market, Risch said.© Thomson Reuters 2018
