Samsung has a known rivalry with Apple, which has led both companies to take important moves to limit the expansion of the other, all due to the fact that Apple and Samsung have been fighting for the number one position as largest smartphone manufacturer for several years now. One of the biggest and probably most harmful moves that both companies have taken is to appeal for a patent infringement lawsuit, this has lead to several rather severe monetary repercussions and even banning some devices manufactured by Samsung in specific regions, including the Galaxy Nexus, Galaxy Note, and the popular Samsung Galaxy S2. Back in 2012, Apple ended up victorious in a patent infringement case, as a United States Federal Court dictated that Samsung was indeed violating a handful of Apple-owned patents and that the South Korean firm had to pay up to $1 billion in damages. Samsung, of course, wan’t happy about losing the case, and with backing from several tech giants, appealed for the U.S Federal Court to reconsider the ruling. Unfortunately for the company, the U.S Appeals Court will not allow Samsung to further pursue the prior decision.
The patents for which Apple started the lawsuit were mostly about several similarities between Samsung devices’ and the iPhone, some design queues apparently taken from Apple, and an overall user interface experience in Samsung’s TouchWiz with some analogous features found in iOS. Despite being backed by Google, Facebook, and eBay, Samsung found itself losing once again against its long time rival, Apple. Samsung’s recent appeal for the reconsideration of 2012’s decision was based on the verdict focusing too much attention on minor design details that are essentially minimal when looking at the complexity of all the elements that make up a smartphone. Fortunately, something that has changed since Samsung lost the original case, is the amount of money it will have to pay to cover any possible damage that may have been inflicted to Apple. The total amount is still being discussed by the U.S Court, but it will most likely be less than the $1 billion fine that was set back in 2012.
Samsung and Apple’s fight will surely intensify after this decision by the U.S Court’s decision, which was made just one day after the announcement of Samsung’s latest flagship devices, the Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+. What measures will the South Korean-based company will take to defend itself from Apple is still to be seen and won’t be the company’s main focus for a few weeks, as right now the launch of its two new devices is more important.