A little known aspect of the US legal decision that gave Apple a massive win over Samsung has been unearthed by The Garlic investigators! As widely reported elsewhere, the Californian jury came back with a sweeping win for Apple in the company’s ongoing battle against Samsung. The jury found Samsung guilty of willfully infringing on Apple’s patents, effectively saying it copied Apple’s designs and features on dozens of mobile devices.
There are eight Samsung mobile phones in total out of the 28 that were included in the case. Those include:
- Galaxy S 4G
- Galaxy S2 AT&T
- Galaxy S2 Skyrocket
- Galaxy S2 T-Mobile
- Galaxy S2 Epic 4G
- Galaxy S Showcase
- Droid Charge
- Galaxy Prevail
In its filing, Apple outlined the specific patents the devices were found to infringe in the trial, which went on for a month and was wrapped up last week. The device with the most infringements is the Galaxy S 4G. It was found to infringe two of Apple’s design patents, three utility patents, and two claims of trade dress.
The jury said Samsung should pay $1.05 billion to Apple as a result of the finding. Furthermore, the ruling stated that Apple was legally required to recall all Samsung mobile phones. The judgement stated that Apple was to re-brand them as Apple iPhones and load a version of Apple’s iOS5 on them. The Apple’s operatin system is known to run on Samsung handsets.
In recognition of the fact that the original owners had already paid for the guilty smart phones, Apple was restrained from overcharging. The judgement required that the handsets must be returned to their original owners with a version of iOS5 fitted that will be activated by the payment of what cannot exceed Apple’s normal minimum service fee.
The recall process will include checking each Samsung phone’s serial number to verify that the phone is eligible for this program. The re-branded replacement unit will be sent to the customer within approximately 6 weeks after Apple receives the Samsung iPhone. The customers are advised to make sure to use iTunes to back up any data on their current phone before sending it in for rebranding.
