Apple Stock News
Apple Inc. was found to be the winner in their most recent lawsuit against rival, Samsung, over alleged patent infringements. A U.S. court subsequently banned the sales of Samsung products that were found to infringe on Apple’s ‘slide to unlock’ patent, a patent for predictive text, and another for the ‘autocorrect’ feature. Additionally, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $548 million to settle the dispute.
Samsung claims that American consumers will not be affected by the court’s decision, as the products that use the banned software are some of the company’s oldest products and are, for the most part, not on the market anymore. Regardless of the minimal impact that the outcome of the lawsuit will have immediately on American consumers, Samsung is concerned with what they claim is an abuse of the judicial system.
Other large tech companies, Dell, eBay, Facebook, Google and HP to name a few, have also come out in support of Samsung after the decision was made. These companies, along with tech analysts, are concerned with the possibility that consumers will end up with fewer choices and higher costs for their products based on the legal precedent set in this case.
So, Apple had their day (more like years) in court and came out winners, but who really lost? Samsung certainly lost hundreds of millions of dollars, but their sales and products are basically unscathed. Consumers seem to be the biggest losers at the end of the day, with the potential for future constrictions on buying options and rising prices.
