It took seven long years, but Apple and Samsung have resolved their long-simmering design patent dispute. In a Thursday filing with the Northern District Court of California, both sides agreed to drop and settle the remaining claims and counterclaims.
The legal dispute between the two mobile heavyweights goes back to 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for violating Apple design patents with Android devices sold between 2010 and 2011. At patents covered in this case included rounded corners on phones, the rim that surrounds the face, and the grid of icons that users view. Two utility patents were also covered in the case.
In 2012, Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in a similar case. Since then, that number dropped numerous times through the appeals process and adjustments. In 2016, Samsung agreed to pay some damages, but the case went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent it back to U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh with an order to revisit $399 million of that award.
In May, a jury in California awarded Apple $539 million. Soon after, Samsung appealed the ruling. Terms weren’t included in today’s filing, which reads:
Plaintiff Apple Inc. and Defendants Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC would like to inform the Court that they have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter.
IT IS HEREBY STIPULATED AND AGREED, by and between the parties and subject to the approval of the Court, that pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure 41(a) and 41(c), all remaining claims and counterclaims in this action are hereby dismissed with prejudice, to the extent such are still pending, and all parties shall bear their own attorneys’ fees and costs.
The case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 11-cv-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).