Apple and Samsung have finally settled a seven-year-long patent dispute, bringing an end to the long-running battle over the design of their rival smartphones. The settlement comes weeks after a US jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $539m (£403m) in damages for copying features of the original iPhone.
The fight began in 2011 when Apple sued its South Korean competitor, seeking more than $2bn in damages. This was the first of many lawsuits that saw the two companies square off in courts around the world. In 2012, a US jury awarded Apple $1.05bn in damages for copied features, including design elements like the screen displaying icons in a grid.
Samsung appealed part of that award, taking its case to the Supreme Court, arguing that damages should be limited since patent infringement involved only certain features. In 2016, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed, handing a victory to Samsung, but left the decision on the patents themselves to a lower court.
That battle went to trial in May, ending in defeat for Samsung, which had argued it owed only $28m. Instead, the jury set the award at $539m, about $140m more than the figure it had appealed. The settlement now closes the chapter on this protracted legal saga.
