Samsung finally agrees to pay Apple $584 million in damages for patent infringement

BY Killian Bell

Published 4 Dec 2015

samsung-copying-iphone

Samsung has finally agreed to pay Apple more than half a billion in damages following the long-running patent infringement battle between the two companies. The South Korean company confirmed in a case management statement that it has “made arrangements” with Apple to hand over $548,176,477.

The agreement comes after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit denied Samsung’s petition for a rehearing last month. Some expected Samsung to take its case to the Supreme Court, but after both companies agreed to mediation, Samsung has finally agreed to pay damages.

“It is now waiting for Apple’s original invoice, and if that payment arrives before the weekend by Korean time, it will send $548 million to Apple by December 14,” reports Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents.

Apple has been fighting Samsung in court for almost five years after it sued the Galaxy maker for copying the design of the iPhone and its software features. Back in August 2012, a jury found Samsung guilty and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages, but that figure has since been reduced in retrials.

It looked like Samsung would continue to fight the ruling, but it appears the debacle is now edging closer toward an end. There is one catch, however: Samsung is reserving its right to obtain reimbursement from Apple if “judgment is reversed, modified, vacated or set aside on appeal or otherwise.”

Samsung will pay up, then, but it wants its money back if the judgement changes at any point. And it seems Samsung will continue to fight this in some way — perhaps by filing a request with the Supreme Court to review design patent damages.

Apple states in its own filing that it “disputes Samsung’s asserted rights to reimbursement.”

We probably haven’t heard the last of this case just yet.