Apple awarded $290 m in Samsung patent case

A US federal jury on Thursday ordered Samsung to pay $290 million in damages to Apple in a partial retrial of a blockbuster patent case involving the two smartphone giants.

The award revises the $450 million in damages originally granted in the landmark suit, but thrown out by a judge.

It is in addition to nearly $600 million in patent infringement damages upheld from the trial last year.

Apple calculated the combined total of the damages awards in the case at slightly less than $930 million. "For Apple, this case has always been about more than patents and money," the iPhone, iPad, iPod and Macintosh computer maker said in a media release.

"It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love. While it's impossible to put a price tag on those values, we are grateful to the jury for showing Samsung that copying has a cost."

Samsung, however, in a statement said it would "move forward with our post-trial motion and appeal."

"We are disappointed by today's decision, which is based in large part on a patent that the US Patent and Trademark Office has recently deemed invalid," the statement said.

Apple has accused its South Korean rival of massive and willful copying of its designs and technology for smartphones and tablets and won the landmark case in a jury decision in August 2012. But the case has been on hold pending multiple appeals.

The original verdict for more than $1 billion was reduced in March when Judge Lucy Koh invalidated some $450 million and ordered a retrial on parts of the case.

- AFP