Today was the last round of the Apple versus Samsung trial, as the closing arguments were said in court and it all comes to a close. In the meantime, Judge Lucy Koh set up one last attempt at mediation and a settlement, with the Samsung and Apple CEO discussing terms and conditions. There’s no word about a settlement so far, so I guess we’ll have to wait the court’s decision.
The stakes are high $2.5 billion high actually, but the media hype and popularity are worth ten times that. The jury will deliberate this week, in this dispute that has been going on for over a year now. These two rivals control over 50% of the global smartphone sales and this trial’s end could put a rift between them and probably give Apple the upper hand. It’s pretty clear what Apple wants: to ban sales of some Samsung devices and ask for damages reflecting the sales of the handsets and tablets that copied the iDevices.
The South Korean rival is trying to expand into the USA and claims that Apple also infringed patents on some wireless technologies and wants damages of its own. Judge Koh advises settlement between the parties, saying that she sees risks for both sides. To me it’s pretty clear that Apple will win this one, but not on the terms that it likes. It will probably get much less than $2.5 billion from Sammy… also I wonder if there’s any room for appeal, or that’s been already done enough times.
