Bite Of The Golden Apple

The Samsung/Apple patent case came back from a jury, and Samsung just got its head handed to it.

A federal jury in California on Friday recommended that Apple be awarded more than $1 billion in damages after finding Samsung was guilty of "willful" violations of a number of Apple's patents in the creation of its own mobile products.

The jury did not recommend awarding Samsung any money in its counterclaims that Apple had violated some of its patents. The judge and lawyers from both Apple and Samsung continued to discuss the jury forms late Friday afternoon.

"This is a huge win for Apple," Mark Lemley, a Stanford law professor, said over e-mail. "$1,051,855,000 is just large enough to make it the largest surviving patent verdict in history."

In aftermarket trading, Apple stock jumped more than $12 a share, to more than $675 a share.

Samsung said the verdict should be viewed "as a loss for the American consumer."

"It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices," the company said in a written statement. "It is unfortunate that patent law can be manipulated to give one company a monopoly over rectangles with rounded corners, or technology that is being improved every day by Samsung and other companies.

And yes, there's definitely the case that patent law is woefully outdated in the age of the internet.  But patent law is law now, and that's what the case was argued on.  Samsung (and Google) can cry all it wants to, but this was a complete win for the Crew from Cupertino.

A billion bucks isn't chump change, either.  Who knows if Apple will see a dime after appeals, but Samsung is facing nothing but pain for years to come.