Jury sides with Apple; Samsung to pay $1.05B

SAN JOSE, Calif. — After a year of scorched-earth litigation, a jury decided Friday that Samsung Electronics Co. stole technology used by Apple Inc. to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad.

The jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $1.05 billion. An appeal is expected. Apple filed its patent infringement lawsuit in April, 2011, and engaged legions of the highest-paid patent lawyers to demand $2.5 billion from its top smart-phone competitor. Samsung fired back with a suit seeking $399 million.

The verdict, however, belonged to Apple, as the jury rejected all Samsung's claims against Apple. Jurors also decided against some of Apple's claims involving the two dozen Samsung devices at issue, declining to award the full $2.5 billion Apple demanded.

However, the jury found that several Samsung products illegally used such Apple creations as the "bounce-back" feature when a user scrolls to an end image, and the ability to zoom text with a tap of a finger.

As part of its lawsuit, Apple also demanded that Samsung pull its most popular cell phones and computer tablets from the U.S. market. A judge was expected to make that ruling at a later time.

After the verdicts were read, the judge sent the jury back to deliberate further on two inconsistencies involving about $2.5 million in damages awarded to Apple based on products jurors found didn't infringe Apple's patents.

Samsung has emerged as one of Apple's biggest rivals and has overtaken Apple as the leading smartphone maker. Samsung's Galaxy line of phones run on Android, a mobile operating system that Google Inc. has given out at no charge.

Samsung conceded Apple makes great products but said it doesn't have a monopoly on the design of rectangular phones with rounded corners that it claimed it created.

The trial came after each side filed a blizzard of legal motions and refused advisories by U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh to settle the dispute out of court. Deliberations by the jury of seven men and two women began Wednesday.

Samsung has sold 22.7 million smart phones and tablets that Apple alleged use its technology. Apple lawyer Harold McElhinny said those devices had accounted for $8.16 billion in sales since June, 2010.

Legal experts and Wall Street analysts viewed Samsung as the underdog in the case. Apple's headquarters is a mere 10 miles from the courthouse, and jurors were picked from the heart of Silicon Valley, where Apple's late founder Steve Jobs is a revered technological pioneer.

Although the legal and technological issues were complex, patent expert Alexander I. Poltorak previously said the case would likely boil down to whether jurors believe Samsung's products look and feel almost identical to Apple's iPhone and iPad.