SAN JOSE, Calif. (Reuters) – Apple Inc. scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung yesterday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.051 billion in damages.
The verdict — which came much sooner than expected — could lead to an outright ban on sales of key Samsung products and will likely solidify Apple’s dominance of the exploding mobile computing market.
A number of companies that sell smartphones based on Google’s Android operating system may now face further legal challenges from Apple, a company that is already among the largest and most profitable in business history.
Shares in Apple, which just this week became the biggest company by market value in history, climbed almost 2 percent to a record high of $675 in after-hours trade.
Brian Love, a Santa Clara law school professor, described it as a crushing victory for Apple: “This is the best-case scenario Apple could have hoped for.”
The jury deliberated for less than three days before delivering the verdict on seven Apple patent claims and five Samsung patent claims — suggesting that the nine-person panel had little difficulty in concluding that Samsung had copied the iPhone and the iPad.
Billions of dollars in future sales hang in the balance.
Apple’s charges that Samsung copied its designs and features are widely viewed as an attack on Google Inc and its Android software, which drives Samsung’s devices and has become the most-used mobile software.
Apple and Samsung, two companies that sell more than half the world’s smartphones and tablets, have locked legal horns in several countries this year.
Earlier yesterday, a South Korean court found that both companies shared blame, ordering Samsung to stop selling 10 products including its Galaxy S II phone and banning Apple from selling four different products, including its iPhone 4.
