Samsung wins $120 million Apple patent dispute case following appeal

A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment, while a representative for Samsung said she did not have an immediate comment on the decision.

Samsung responded with a counter-suit, claiming that Apple had infringed on two of their patents, winning one of them.

Apple sued Samsung twice, in 2011 and 2012, claiming the Korean handset maker copied some design and software features of iPhones.

Speaking at the company’s annual meeting in Cupertino, California, Cook also said Apple was “a staunch advocate for our customers’ privacy and personal safety”, as it fights a public battle with the US government over access to the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters.

This is big news for Samsung as the consumer-electronics company will not have to make more payments to Apple. In the most recent ruling, a previous $120 million judgement against Samsung was thrown out by a federal appeals court.

Apple and Samsung have been battling it out for years.

A USA appeals court ruled on Friday to overturn a prior decision in a patent dispute involving Apple Inc.

In the past, Samsung has been made to pay large sums of money to Apple, as a result of the so called violations.

The second case is somewhat similar to the first. This overturned $98.7 million of the total $120 million. The company can ask the Washington, D.C.-based Federal Circuit to rehear the case with its entire roster of judges or appeal to the Supreme Court.

The outcome of the orders of the appeals court will surely come as a breath of fresh air for the Galaxy smartphone manufacturer as it had been getting a lot of negative publicity in the past.

The judges ruled that Apple patents on those two features were invalid because similar ideas had been floating around the tech industry when Apple applied for the patents. “Apple does not seek to enjoin the sale of lifesaving drugs, but to prevent Samsung from profiting from the unauthorized use of infringing features in its cellphones and tablets”.

Howard Mintz covers legal affairs.