U.S. Jury Says Samsung Infringed On Two Apple Patents, Fines $120 Mln In Damages

(RTTNews) - A federal-court jury ruled Friday that South Korean conglomerate Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (SSNLF.PK) infringed on two software patents of Apple Inc. (AAPL). The jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $119.6 million in damages. The fine, however, was far short of the $2.2 billion Apple had been seeking.

Meanwhile, Samsung phones did not infringe two other patents, it was ruled. The same jury also ruled that Apple infringed on one Samsung patent and awarded Samsung $158,400.

In Friday's verdict, some Samsung devices were found to have infringed Apple patents for 'data tapping', and 'slide to unlock' patent. The damages were also awarded based on Samsung's infringement of Apple's 'auto-complete' patent.

The two patents Samsung didn't infringe were Apple's patents that covered Siri-style search and another for synchronizing data, according to the jury.

Samsung and Apple, who are both rivals and partners in the mobile phone business, have been locked in disputes over design and technology patent suits in four continents since April 2011 for supremacy in the more than $300 billion smartphone market.

In late November, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $290 million in damages after the re-trial of a part of the previous litigation that had found 26 Samsung products infringing on Apple patents. The re-trail was ordered on $450 million of damages from the total $1.05 billion award against Samsung in August 2012 after the previous jury said it miscalculated the amount. The balance about $600 million in patent infringement damages were upheld by the judge.

In early September 2012, Apple also won a case at the U.S. International Trade Commission or ITC brought by Samsung over patented technology in the iPhone and the iPad tablet computer. Imports of some older model Samsung mobile devices were blocked at that time.

Samsung is currently the largest manufacturer of handsets running Google Inc.'s (GOOG) Android operating system, with a wide range of phones in varying screen sizes and prices. Meanwhile, Apple has maintained a smaller product lineup aimed towards high-end consumers. However, both companies have been losing market share mainly to Chinese rivals.

In late April, Apple reported higher second quarter profit as sales surged and margins improved amid strong sales of its iPhones. The unit sales of iPhone were up 17 percent year-over-year to 43.7 million iPhones, while revenue from iPhone increased 14 percent.

Samsung also posted higher first-quarter profit, but it experienced slowing sales at its mobile unit.