Samsung and Apple have been locked in a costly conflict for about five years now, and even though no side showed signs of throwing in the towel, it seems that Samsung is now actually ready to settle things once and for all by paying Apple a relatively large sum of money. We’re talking about no less than $538 million, and while this number might seem quite high, it only represents about half of what the court asked it to pay in the first place. It’s not exactly clear who’s in the wrong as far as the lawsuit itself is concerned, though.
On the one hand, Apple has accused Samsung of infringing pinch-to-zoom, but the US Patent Office has classified this particular technology as non-patentable in 2013. Moreover, Apple’s D’677 design patent for edge-to-edge glass screen has also been invalidated by the USPTO. Apple has submitted many more IPs to the court when it originally filed the lawsuit. As for the settlement, Samsung is reserving the rights to obtain reimbursement in the event that “the partial judgment is reversed, modified, vacated or set aside on appeal or otherwise.” Apple is officially rejecting these reimbursement rights, which means that the story might be far from over.
