Daily Cuppa: Samsung's weekend of patent madness

Summary:It was all Samsung this weekend, with its battles against Apple in both South Korea and the US receiving verdicts. Take a sip and catch up on what you missed.

We hope your weekend was great, because for one particular South Korean technology company, it was not so great.

After three weeks of testimony and three days of deliberation by the jury in the Apple v. Samsung case in the US, there was finally a verdict : Samsung has been ordered to pay Apple damages of US$1.05 billion.

Don't forget that Samsung was also attempting to sue Apple for patent infringement. How did it fare? AU$0 in damages.

So, what does this mean? Some say that this doesn't matter at all , since the case will probably get stretched out to the Supreme Court, highlighting the absurdity of the patent system.

Others have different theories, betting that this will open new opportunities for other companies. Those that are looking to benefit could include Nokia and Microsoft .

Google, meanwhile, might be quivering in its shoes, realising that if Apple can successfully sue Samsung, then perhaps it is in the firing line, too . Many of the patents that Samsung was found to have infringed upon, such as the one for its application grid layout with an icon dock at the bottom, are based on Android.

So far, the only place where patent-infringement lawsuits seem to be making any sense at all is in Samsung's home country. A Seoul Central District Court in South Korea has found that Samsung violated one of Apple's patents, and that Apple violated two of Samsung's. The verdict: both companies lost , with bans placed on the sale of a number of devices from each. Perhaps that will make companies reconsider suing each other, and stop the patent madness.

Don't be fooled into thinking that all of these lawsuits mean the end for Samsung, though. UK mobile operator Three has signed Samsung up to build out its 4G network , so even if Samsung's handset business takes a hit, there are always other industries that it can use to get itself through a rough patch.

Topics: Samsung, Apple, Australia, Google, Legal, Microsoft, Nokia, Patents, Telcos



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