Apple awarded $120 million from Samsung in long-running ‘slide-to-unlock’ patent battle

After years of litigation, Apple has walked away victorious over Samsung following the final verdict of a lengthy legal battle surrounding the now familiar ‘slide-to-unlock’ smartphone gesture.

The U.S. Supreme Court revealed today that it won’t hear an appeal related to the $120 million patent infringement case, which was first decided in 2014. Since the initial ruling, the case has been appealed multiple times at various levels of the U.S. legal system.

Samsung has been found to have infringed on both patents: Apple’s ‘slide-to-unlock’ gesture, as well as the tech giant’s less familiar quick links patent which automatically turns information into a link phone number — if you’ve ever clicked on a phone number with an iOS device, you’ve likely used this feature.

The initial ruling was overturned two years ago, but then reinstated once again a year later. Samsung then appealed to the Supreme court, which is where today’s ruling stems from.

As expected, Samsung is not pleased with the result, with the company releasing the following statement:

“Our argument was supported by many who believed that the Court should hear the case to reinstate fair standards that promote innovation and prevent abuse of the patent system.”

Samsung believes that Apple’s patent is invalid and that the company will “unjustly profit” from it.

It’s worth noting that this is just the end of one of Samsung’s legal battles, as the two companies are still embroiled in a much bigger legal battle surrounding other intellectual property. In terms of this legal battle, the original $1 billion ruling has been lowered to $400 million through various appeals. This case is set to continue litigation in May.

Source: U.S. Supreme Court Via: The Verge