Apple, Samsung resolve smartphone design fight after 7 years
The litigation battle cost each company hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees and tested their reputations for innovation
Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. reached a settlement in their US patent battle, ending a seven-year fight over smartphone designs that spanned the globe.
The string of lawsuits started in 2011 after Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder who died that year, threatened to go “thermonuclear” on rivals that used the Android operating system and accused Samsung of “slavishly” copying the iPhone design. The companies didn’t disclose the terms of the accord and didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The ensuing litigation cost each company hundreds of millions of dollars in legal fees and tested their reputations as innovators. Wednesday’s settlement resolved the last outstanding dispute.
“The sumo wrestlers have tired of the wrestling match,” said Paul Berghoff, a patent lawyer with McDonnell Boehnen Hulbert & Berghoff in Chicago who followed the cases over the years. “They both were tired and happy to stop paying the outside lawyers. We may never know who blinked first, who made the call.”
By many accounts, the iPhone revolutionised the market for smartphones when it was introduced in 2007 by Jobs, who described the device as “magic” and warned, “boy, have we patented it.”
Samsung, which was already on the market, had to adapt quickly as consumers snapped up the sleek iPhone, with its ease of use and design awards.
