Andre Yoskowitz
25 Aug 2012 18:45
Last night, a jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in a sweeping victory over Samsung.
Samsung had been accused of infringing on 7 Apple patents, and it was ruled that they in fact had, on all 7 counts.
The case had been thrown out in pretty much every court in the world, including Germany and Korea, but not in the U.S.
Apple CEO Tim Cook has sent a memo to all employees, following the ruling:
Today was an important day for Apple and for innovators everywhere.
Many of you have been closely following the trial against Samsung in San Jose for the past few weeks. We chose legal action very reluctantly and only after repeatedly asking Samsung to stop copying our work. For us this lawsuit has always been about something much more important than patents or money. It's about values. We value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. And we do this to delight our customers, not for competitors to flagrantly copy.
We owe a debt of gratitude to the jury who invested their time in listening to our story. We were thrilled to finally have the opportunity to tell it. The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung's copying went far deeper than we knew.
The jury has now spoken. We applaud them for finding Samsung's behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right.
I am very proud of the work that each of you do.
Today, values have won and I hope the whole world listens.
Tim