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The Washington Post:

Apple won a sweeping victory in its landmark patent dispute against Samsung when a Silicon Valley jury ruled Friday that a series of popular smartphone and tablet features — from the rounded rectangle shape to the way screens slide and bounce to the touch — are proprietary Apple innovations.

The nine-person jury overwhelmingly sided with Apple's claims that Samsung had infringed on valid patents when it copied those and other design elements while seeking to compete against the wildly popular iPhone and iPad. The jury rejected claims that Apple had infringed on several of Samsung's patents.

Damages totaled $1.05 billion — less than half of the $2.5billion that Apple requested — but the impact on Samsung's business practices and those of other electronics manufacturers stands to be more profound if the ruling survives a likely appeal.

Together, Apple and Samsung control more than half of the fast-growing smartphone market, and both are major players in tablets, as well. The ruling has no immediate effect on the sale of either company's products, but Apple has requested injunctions against the sales of products found to infringe on its patents. A hearing on the injunctions has been scheduled for Sept. 20.

"While a billion [dollars] is significant, Samsung has the balance sheet to cover it," said Demetrios Anaipakos, a patent lawyer. "What's more substantial is an injunction. If Samsung is required to pull devices off the market, that will be much more expensive."

AZA Patent Lawyer Demetrios Anaipakos in The Washington Post article

The speed and decisiveness of the ruling, which came after three days of deliberations, startled observers who had been bracing for a long wait as the jury worked its way through an uncommonly detailed set of questions involving several features and dozens of individual devices.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/apple-patents-were-violated-by-samsung-jury-rules/2012/08/24/d4e44b2a-ee3b-11e1-afd8-097e90f99d05_story.html

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