Google bombshell didn’t affect Apple-Samsung verdict

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For the second time in a row Samsung has been found guilty by a U.S. court of ripping off Apple’s patents, but according to the jury foreman in the latest Apple vs Samsung case, there wasn’t a single piece of evidence or testimony that sealed Samsung’s fate.

Jury members met with the media after being dismissed Monday morning, including ex-IBM executive and jury foreman Thomas Dunham, who said the revelation that Google agreed to protect Samsung from damages on a couple of patents in the trial was the biggest shocker of all.

“I think it woke us all up,” Dunham told Re/code, but he and other jurors agreed Google’s role didn’t push the jury’s decision one way or the other when it ultimately came to awarding damages.

<blockquote>“The damages were based on the fact that both sides presented their view of what a reasonable amount of, I guess, compensation would be. We didn’t really feel either one was what we felt was a fair and just compensation.”</blockquote>

The jury took three days of deliberation to determine the amount of damages before being called back today to fix a clerical error. Apple didn’t get the full $2.2 billion it was hoping for, but some jurors had higher damage awards in mind than the $119.6 million Apple was eventually awarded by the jury.

Dunham and the rest of the jurors said they weren’t trying send a message, but after receiving such a small fine, many question whether it will have an effect on the South Korean handset makers’ long held strategy to copy first, capture marketshare second and then reach settlements on patent issues later.

 

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