Apple wins $290m in damages from Samsung in patent infringement case

Final end to a year-long dispute brings Samsung's total damages owed to a total of $930 million

A cashier counts out currency in New York, handling sales of the iPhone 5s. (REUTERS/Adrees Latif)

Apple has won a major battle in the smartphone wars, with rival Samsung ordered to pay the iPhone maker $290 million in damages over patent infringement.

A federal jury in California ruled that Samsung had infringed on five Apple patents over 13 separate devices.

The wrangling over these patents has been on-going since last year. Samsung was originally ordered to pay $1.05 billion but this figure was slashed to $640m in March 2013. This latest ruling bumps the damages back up to $930m, just short of Apple’s original demands.

Samsung had argued that they should only pay Apple $52m, with a spokesperson commenting after the decision: “While we move forward with our post-trial motions and appeals, we will continue to innovate with groundbreaking technologies and great products.”

An Apple spokesperson said that the case had “always been about more than patents and money. It has been about innovation and the hard work that goes into inventing products that people love."

During the trial, Apple's SVP of marketing Phil Schiller took the stand to describe the iPhone as a "huge risk": "We had a saying inside the company that it was a 'bet-the-company' product," said Schiller. "We were starting to do well again in iPod. Then here we're going to invest all these resources, financial as well as people, in creating this product."

Although none of the devices covered by the trial are currently sold by Samsung Apple has said that the case will provide an important precedent for future infringements. The Californian company says that Samsung’s similar products have hurt their profits, weakened their brand and denied Apple profits from licensing their patents.

The damages awarded conclude the first major trial between Samsung and Apple. The two companies will repeat their performance in March next year in a case with potentially much more significance as it concerns more recent devices: the iPhone 5 and Galaxy SIII.