Although iOS 10 forgot the iconic slide to unlock that allowed us to unlock any iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch, Samsung still has a long way to go. 4 years ago, Samsung was found guilty by an American jury of infringing some Apple patents, including one for the slide to unlock system implemented in iOS.
Separately from slide to unlock, Samsung was also found guilty of infringing two other patents that implemented a system that turned phone numbers into internal links that could be pressed to call. For all these violations, Samsung must pay no less than 120 million dollars to Apple.
At the beginning of this year, Samsung managed to obtain an annulment of this verdict, but the appeal made by Apple against that decision was judged today and the Americans won the case. Now those from Samsung are obliged to pay 120 million dollars to Apple, if they do not appeal against today's decision.
The decision is ironic because Apple no longer uses slide to unlock in iOS 10, so it has already been forgotten, but Samsung will have to pay compensation for it. Samsung has already paid almost 550 million dollars to Apple for infringing some patents, and today we are approaching 700 million dollars.
In this case, Apple claimed that Samsung infringed patents for the slide-to-unlock feature, autocorrect and a way to detect phone numbers so they can be tapped to make phone calls. The bulk of the award, $98.7 million, was for the detection patent that the earlier panel said was not infringed. The February decision also said the other two patents were invalid... That was a wrong decision, the court ruled Friday, because it relied on issues that were never raised on appeal or on information that was beyond the trial record.
In 2012, the jury decided that Samsung must pay Apple compensation in the amount of a little over 1 billion dollars, half of which has been paid so far, and the rest is still contested in the courts.
