Samsung vs. Apple

Submission 25,814

Part of a series on Apple. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Samsung Vs. Apple refers to a series of lawsuits between the electronics companies Apple Inc. and Samsung regarding the intellectual property used in the design of various smartphones and tablet computers.

Background

On January 5th, 2007, Apple, Inc. filed several design patents for the shape of the iPhone four days before the product's market release. In June, the company submitted a large graphical user interface patent containing 193 iPhone screen shots. On April 15th, 2011, Apple filed a 38-page federal complaint against Samsung Electronics alleging that several of Samsung's Android smartphones and tablets infringed on Apple's intellectual property.^[2]

Notable Developments

Counter-Suit

On April 22nd, 2011, Samsung counter-sued in Germany, Japan and South Korea claiming that Apple infringed on patents for mobile-communication. In June, Samsung filed additional suits against Apple in the British High Court of Justice, the United States District Court for the District of Delaware and the United States International Trade Commission.

International Trials

On September 9th, 2011, a German court ruled that Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringed on Apple's intellectual property, resulting in a sales ban on the tablet device. In March 2012, a German court in Mannheim dismissed all cases involving the "slide-to-unlock" smartphone feature. In August 2012, the Seoul Central District Court ruled that Apple infringed two of Samsung's patents and that Samsung infringed one of Apple's. That same month, The Tokyo District Court determined that Samsung had no violated.

United States Trials

On August 24th, 2012, a verdict was reached that Samsung had infringed on several of Apple's patents, awarding Apple $ 1.049 billion in damages. On September 21st, Samsung appealed the verdict to the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on the grounds that it was not based on evidence or testimony and that the jury foreman Velvin Hogan failed to disclose his previous lawsuit with Seagate Technology. On November 21st, 2013, a United States jury awarded Apple an additional $290 million in damages.

Nickel Payment Hoax

On August 29th, 2012, a satirical news piece was published on the news site Paperblog^[3] joking that Samsung had delivered over 30 trucks containing the entire $1.049 billion awarded in the lawsuit to Apple's headquarters in California. The story began circulating as if it were a real news story, with several image macros depicting Samsung as a trollface (shown below). According to the hoax investigation website Snopes,^[4] to pay Apple a billion dollars in nickels, it would require Samsung to obtain nearly every nickel in circulation.