After losing in the appellate phase, Samsung has finally agreed that it will pay Apple a $548 million partial judgement as part of the two companies? longstanding patent battle.
According to a Thursday court filing, Samsung will pay the amount once Apple has submitted an invoice, which is due Friday. The payment is expected to be completed by December 14, at which point Apple will withdraw its motion to enforce the court?s judgment.
That $548 million amount was cut from an initial 2012 verdict that awarded $930 million to Apple.
As Ars reported previously, Apple won that trial on both patent claims and claims related to "trade dress," an amorphous part of trademark law. The Federal Circuit, which considers all patent appeals, said the trade dress claims weren't legally justified and threw them out. The Federal Circuit ordered the federal court in San Jose to issue the final judgment of $548 million, which it did in September 2015.
Samsung, for its part, has some caveats. The company writes:
Samsung further reserves all rights to reclaim or obtain reimbursement of any judgment amounts paid by Samsung to any entity in the event the partial judgment is reversed, modified, vacated or set aside on appeal or otherwise, including as a result of any proceedings before the [United States Patent and Trademark Office] addressing the patents at issue or as a result of any petition for writ of certiorari filed with the Supreme Court. Samsung notes that the Patent Trial and Appeal Board has issued a final decision of invalidity on the ?915 Patent, and Apple filed a notice of appeal to the Federal Circuit in the USPTO last week. The appeal has not been docketed at the time of this filing.
The two sides will meet before US District Judge Lucy Koh on December 10, 2015 for a status conference to discuss the issue.
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/12/samsung-to-finally-pay-apple-548m-as-part-of-endless-patent-case/
