Samsung and Apple End Drawn-out Patent Dispute

Samsung Electronics and Apple have agreed to resolve a seven-year long legal dispute over smartphone design patent infringement, reported Reuters and Bloomberg on June 27

Bloomberg reported quoting the lawsuit documents filed to the US District Court of San Jose, California.

It added that the specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court in San Jose, who has been hearing the case, said, “Both sides (Samsung and Apple) have decided to withdraw their remaining demands and opposition and settle the issue,” reported CNET, an American IT media.

CNET explained that the two parties agreed to withdraw the lawsuit and not to file other lawsuits on the same issue.

"The long-lasting patent dispute of the two smartphone giants finally came to an end, and the terms of the settlement have not been revealed,” said The Verge, an IT media.

Earlier last month, the jury members of the District Court of San Jose, California ruled that Samsung Electronics should pay US$ 539 million (about 600 billion won) for infringing Apple's design patents.

The US court ruled that Samsung Electronics infringed Apple's design patents, but the Supreme Court rejected the ruling accepting Samsung Electronics' grounds for appeal that there were problems with the criteria for calculating damages.

Since then, there were disputes in the trial to reimburse the damages.

The jury concluded that Samsung should pay US$533 million for the design infringement and US$ 5.3 million for the utility patent infringement.

Samsung Electronics paid US$548 million for damages to Apple in 2015, of which compensation for design patent infringement amounted to about US$390 million.

Therefore, according to the jury's verdict, Samsung Electronics still has to pay US$140 million.