The Apple VS Samsung lawsuit saga has dragged on for years but now it seems that the Korean device maker has finally given in and agreed to pay Apple $548 million over patent violations with several of its older smartphones. Apple opened up this lawsuit originally around five years ago and after years of back and forth, its time to put the case to bed.
Samsung has confirmed that it will be sending Apple its money before the 14th of December, as long as Apple sends an invoice before this weekend. If it takes longer, then Samsung will miss that payment date but still, Apple is finally getting the money it fought for.
This has been quite the saga, initially Apple was seeking $2.5 billion in damages, though Apple only managed to win just over one billion. After that, an appeal knocked it down to $930 million and finally this year, things got knocked down further to a much more manageable $548 million. There won't be another appeal and that final figure will be paid in full.
All of that said though, Samsung has a caveat, it is reserving the right to win some of that money back if the US Supreme Court agrees to review the legal case and decides to hold a complete retrial.
KitGuru Says: This is pretty big news, though if the US Supreme Court reviews the case, a retrial could end up being on the cards. Right now, the US patent office is being criticised for some of the patents it granted to Apple in the first place so things could still turn around at some point.
I wonder who apples next big target will be, at least this case is over now though.