Samsung ordered to pay Apple $119.6m

The "slide to unlock" feature was one of those under scrutiny

Samsung has been ordered to pay $119.6m (£71m) to Apple by a US court for infringing two of its patents.

A jury in California delivered its verdict in a federal court in San Jose on Friday in the latest lawsuit involving the two tech giants.

Apple had sought $2bn at the trial, accusing Samsung of violating patents on smartphone features.

The court also ruled that Apple infringed Samsung's patents and awarded $158,000 in damages.

Apple had sought $2.2bn after accusing Samsung of infringing five of its patents covering functions such as the "slide to unlock" from its devices.

Samsung denied any wrongdoing and sought $6m after arguing Apple had infringed two of its smartphone patents related to camera use and video transmission.

"Though this verdict is large by normal standards, it is hard to view this outcome as much of a victory for Apple,'' said Brian Love, a Santa Clara University law professor.

"This amount is less than 10% of the amount Apple requested and probably doesn't surpass by too much the amount Apple spent litigating this case.''

This verdict marks the latest legal battle over intellectual property between the world's top two smartphone makers.

Apple and Samsung have been fighting patent battles for years and across many countries.

Two years ago, a separate jury ordered Samsung to pay Apple $930m after finding it had used Apple technology.

That verdict is still being challenged by Samsung.

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Analysis

Richard TaylorNorth America technology correspondent

The verdict will probably come as a blow for Apple, which portrayed Samsung as resorting to "the dark side of intentional copying".

The figure would appear to reflect the jury's belief that Apple's settlement claim was unfairly inflated; Samsung argued all along that it should be far lower than the $2.2bn sought, not least because some of the patents were never even incorporated into the iPhone's software.

They say lawyers are the only ones who win from patent wars. In this case that could well prove true - with all the mudslinging and embarrassing leaks of internal memos witnessed in the courtroom over the past month, neither company's reputation has been enhanced.