Apple vs. Samsung: the complete lawsuit timeline – The Verge

Apple and Samsung settle seven-year-long patent fight over copying the iPhone

2018-06-27T14:59:32-04:00

Apple and Samsung have finally put an end to their long-running patent battle whose central question was whether Samsung copied the iPhone. In a court filing today, Judge Lucy Koh said the two companies had informed her that they had reached a settlement. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

The patent battle started in 2011 and initially resulted in a $1 billion ruling in Apple's favor. But it didn't end there. A series of appeals pushed the dispute to the Supreme Court and back, as the companies continually rehashed which patents were infringed and, more recently, exactly how much Samsung owes Apple because of the infringement.

"Th …

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Samsung drags Apple back to court for a retrial over $400 million patent damages

2017-10-23T06:46:07-04:00

The patent battle between Apple and Samsung over who owns the concept of smartphones with round corners (among other things) is back for another trial. The lawsuit was originally settled in 2012, with a court ordering Samsung to pay Apple more than $1 billion in damages. This figure was whittled down over the years by Samsung's lawyers (it currently stands at $400 million) but a recent successful appeal from the South Korean electronics giant means the figure will now be reassessed at trial once again.

The judgement was made yesterday by Judge Lucy Koh of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, with the rul …

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Samsung gets another chance to reduce Apple’s $400 million patent win

2016-12-06T11:12:21-05:00

The Supreme Court has overturned Apple's $400 million award in its long-running patent lawsuit against Samsung. Apple won the case in 2012, convincing a federal court that a number of Samsung devices had infringed upon iPhone design patents - including one for a rectangular device with rounded corners and bezels, and another for a home screen comprised of a grid of colorful apps. The Supreme Court's decision today does not reverse Apple's win, but does mean that the case will be returned to the Federal Circuit so that the damages can be reassessed.

The Supreme Court's judgement is complicated, but hinges on the method by which damages are c …

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Samsung will take its legal fight with Apple to the Supreme Court

2015-08-20T04:19:25-04:00

It's been three years since Samsung lost its multimillion-dollar patent battle against Apple, but the South Korean company is still trying to forestall the judgement. After the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Samsung's plea to reconsider a ruling upholding the case's damages, the Galaxy phone maker has decided to turn to the US Supreme Court for help. On Wednesday, Samsung filed court papers asking the nation's highest court to weigh in on the protracted legal battle.

"issues of enormous importance."

"The questions present issues of enormous importance to patent litigation and the scope of innovation, especially in high-technolog …

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Court will reduce Apple’s $930 million win in Samsung patent case

2015-05-18T10:16:15-04:00

Apple and Samsung's patent infringement battle isn't over, and in the latest ruling, neither side has gotten exactly what it wanted. In a filing posted today, the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reaffirmed that Samsung had copied specific design patents in Apple's iPhone. But the court decided that Samsung wasn't infringing on Apple's overall trade dress - the look and feel of its phones. This means that while the damages Apple was granted for patent infringement will stand, the company's overall $930 million award will be downsized.

The court's analysis hinged on the idea that trade dress had to be based on aesthetic decisions …

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Apple allegedly published confidential documents it fought Samsung for leaking

2014-03-05T11:24:07-05:00

The latest twist in a legal dispute between Apple and Samsung is a strange one: after a court fined Samsung for revealing confidential information about Apple, Samsung now says that Apple accidentally revealed that very same information about itself - and in an even more public fashion. The dispute centered on a licensing agreement between Apple and Nokia that Samsung's lawyers accidentally leaked to the company's employees. While a court found that this did happen, Samsung wants to see its fine reduced on the grounds that Apple apparently leaked those very same documents too.

Apple may have published confidential information multiple times

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Another court battle looms for Apple and Samsung as patent talks fail

2014-02-22T13:16:01-05:00

Apple samsung patent

First rumored in the Korean press last month, Apple and Samsung have now said in a filing with the US district court that they've been unable to amicably resolve a new round of patent disputes after having agreed in January to try mediation before going to court. That doesn't come as much of a surprise: the two companies have found very little common ground in a series of intellectual property disputes that led to a billion-dollar judgment against Samsung in 2012. The latest talks are said to have gone all the way to the top, roping in both Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung Mobile boss JK Shin.

The mediation effort covered a newer set of devic …

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Apple and Samsung heading back to court after mediation talks fail, say reports

2014-02-14T05:08:00-05:00

Tim Cook (Verge, 640)

Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung's mobile chief and co-CEO JK Shin reportedly met last week to try and thrash out a settlement to their long-running intellectual property dispute. The meeting, while unconfirmed by either party, is being reported by multiple Korean news outlets and adheres to the companies' promise to try and come to an amicable agreement before resuming their legal antagonism next month.

Sources indicate that the mediation effort was unproductive, which comes as no surprise given the history of animosity between Apple and Samsung and the fact that similar talks were fruitless back in 2012.

Shin was expected to fly out to the …

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Department of Justice ends investigation into Samsung’s potential patent abuse

2014-02-07T16:13:25-05:00

department of justice

The US Justice Department announced today that it will close its investigation into Samsung's use of patents to attack rivals like Apple. This decision comes after Samsung filed a patent infringement complaint against Apple at the US International Trade Commission and won an order in June 2013 to ban the sale of some iPhone and iPad models in the US. The ban was vetoed by President Obama last August, and now the Justice Department is stating that it sees no reason for the investigation to continue.

The Department of Justice has been investigating Samsung's use - and potential misuse - of "standards-essential patents" (SEPs) for years now. C …

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Samsung avoids court sanctions for leaking secret Apple licensing agreement

2014-01-30T10:49:43-05:00

Samsung and Apple's drawn-out legal battle has been so contentious that the two companies spent the last few months in court fighting over the events of the trial itself. In November, Judge Paul Grewal found that Samsung's legal team had likely violated a court order by distributing a legal report that contained confidential information from Apple and Nokia licensing agreements. On Wednesday, Grewal affirmed his earlier decision and ordered Samsung to pay Apple and Nokia's court costs for the case, but he stopped short of imposing sanctions that would hit Samsung with more than merely monetary losses.

Samsung attorney John Quinn said the te …

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