Dutch court order Apple to pay damages to Samsung

A Dutch court have ruled in favour of Samsung, in one of their global battles against Apple. The court in The Hague ordered Apple to pay damages for infringing a technical communications patent in some of the mobile devices, including the iPhone 3G, 3GS, 4 and iPad 1 and 2.

The damages will be calculated within the next two months based on the number of products sold in the Netherlands which breach the patents. The court have said this will be from the Aug 4th 2010. Samsung were rejected for three further technical patent claims.

The ruling is being classed as a significant victory for Samsung as it is the first time a court have ruled in favour of the company in regards to patent infringements. Apple started the dispute with legal action against Samsung in April 2011 claiming they were copying their iPhone and iPad designs.

Florian Mueller, a German consultant wrote on his blog “This really is nothing more than symbolic. It's not even clear that Samsung will make enough money as a result of this infringement finding to offset the €800,000 it now owes Apple in legal fees because it lost with respect to three of its four patents.”

Kitguru says: These cases are far from over. Samsung and Apple are locked in legal battle in 10 countries, with 30 patent litigation cases pending.

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