The legal battle between Apple and Samsung that started more than seven years ago is heating back up.
Apple is seeking $1 billion in damages from Samsung as a result of the latter company infringing on the former's patents. Meanwhile, Samsung thinks that it should only pay $28 million. Jurors in San Jose, Calif., must determine whether Samsung will pay damages on specific parts that it was found to have infringed upon or whether it will pay damages on the whole device.
Samsung was found to have infringed upon three of Apple's design patents and two of Apple's utility patents.
Apple lawyer Bill Lee told jurors to "step back in time" to 2006 to think about what phones looked like at that time, before Apple's iPhone launched in 2007. Lee added that Samsung made $3.3 billion in revenue and $1 billion in profits from phones that infringed on Apple's design patents.
Meanwhile, Samsung lawyer John Quinn argued to the jurors that the damages Samsung pays should be based on the profits it made from specific parts that infringed upon Apple patents, not the entire device. Quinn added that the scope of Apple's design patents "are so very narrow".
It's kind of crazy that this legal war between Apple and Samsung is still happening seven years after it began, but here we are. Things are a bit different now, though, as the companies aren't arguing over whether or not patents were infringed upon, rather how much Samsung will pay damages for specific components or for an entire device. There's a big difference in the amount of damages that Apple and Samsung thinks should be paid, and it'll be interesting to see what the jurors decide. Stay tuned.
