The tech world has been waiting with held breath for the Apple vs Samsung trial to play out. To many fan boys it will legitimize their preferred phone provider in their eyes but to big business it has a lot to do with how patent disputes will play out in the future.
The true verdict though will go far past the monetary value that either company ends up winning from one another in the near future as the verdict will create a strong change on the focus in cell phones and tablets for decades to come.
If Apple wins there is a large chance that future phones and tablets from multiple companies will have to completely change their look as to avoid lawsuits themselves and will be forced to create unique features and designs. While there could be a greater influx of newer products out there it could also have devastating results to Samsung aside from the large impact on their profit margin as they are looking to ban all future Samsung phones sales within the United States. This kind of a deal would allow Apple to reign chaos on anyone it sues in the future regardless if they have a leg to stand on for people trying to avoid being in the same situation. For that kind of a resolution to happen Samsung would have to most likely be found guilty on every charge of patent infringement they are being accused of. While they will most likely be found guilty of some of the charges it is rare that in a case like this it would be found guilty of all of them.
If Samsung was to flat out win this trial it would gives a bolstering support against Apple in many of the other cases that they currently have open. It would most likely give the tech giant pause on perusing frivolous lawsuits against other companies.
According to Bloomberg it looks as if today that Samsung’s CEO Kwon Oh Hyun and Apple’s CEO Tim Cook about a phone call they had this morning to try and resolve their patent dispute. If they were able to come to any form of an agreement the Jury’s decision may become moot or slightly less relevant though no word has leaked on what the two companies lawyers discussed with Judge Lucy Koh this morning about the call itself. This isn’t the first time the two CEO’s have spoken and the last time clearly an agreement was not able to be reached as this trial has been come to nearly a conclusion. A definite decision would cause major changes in how the tech industry’s patents are viewed through litigation for years to come. Tomorrow we’ll either know how this has been resolved or if the Jury is actually working on coming to a decision.
According to The Wall Street Journal if they were not able to come to an agreement the closing arguments that the Jury hears today will be the last piece of information they receive before they go to vote on the patent dispute. Each of the twelve jury members will have a work sheet that is nearly a dozen pages with yes or no answers that will determinate the course of the lawsuits. The Jury will need to decide Apple’s claims, Samsung’s claims, and assign damages or royalties for anyone who is found guilty in the trial. Each of the infringements that are being looked at though must be unanimous for each one to go through.
