Technology News: Samsung and Apple end war over smartphone patent

The companies did not disclose the amounts involved in the agreement

After 7 years of lawsuits, Apple and Samsung technology companies have finally closed the dispute over patents for smartphones. The giants made an agreement last Wednesday (June 27), thus putting an end to the most famous case of patent dispute in recent years.

The companies did not disclose the amounts involved in this last and final agreement. In the latest order on the case in May, the judge asked Samsung to pay Apple $539 million for the crime of patent infringement.

Apple filed its first lawsuit against Samsung in 2011, motivated by the copy of the iPhone’s design. After that, a complicated sequence of processes, counter-processes and judgments followed. In 2016, the case went through the Supreme Court of the United States.

The first action of the company of Steve Jobs was to prevent that Samsung marketed the smartphones, but the technology was already outdated. From then on, the dispute was focused solely on money. Apple, at the time, demanded more than $2 billion in damages, but Samsung argued that it owed only $28 million.

According to experts, Apple won the battle on paper, but did not achieve the goal of having a competitive advantage over Samsung handsets. Today, iPhones are still the best-selling cell phones, but other than Samsung, other smartphone companies continue to push it with their releases.

Josh Rosenstock, an Apple spokesman, said the case has always turned around money. “Apple has kicked off the smartphone revolution with the iPhone, and it’s a fact that Samsung shamelessly copied our design. It’s important that we continue to protect the hard work and innovation of so many people at Apple.” Samsung’s spokesman did not comment on the case.