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Apple wins big in Samsung case, awarded over $1 billion

By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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By
Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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August 24, 2012, 7:12 PM ET

llustration: Vicki Behringer

FORTUNE — Despite the complexity of the case and the billions of dollars at stake, the jury that heard Apple’s (AAPL) patent infringement suit against Samsung needed only three days to reach a consensus.

Apple didn’t get everything it asked for, but it got plenty.

As the foreperson began reading the 20-page verdict form — which required the jurors to rule on whether more than a dozen Samsung devices made by three different Samsung divisions violated one of several Apple patents — most of the answers were “yes” with a few “no”s scattered among them.

Among the patents Samsung infringed were the so-called bounce-back feature and, for most devices, the multitouch feature known as “pinch to zoom.”

According to several live blogs (see here and here), the jury recommended that Apple be awarded more than $1 billion — a figure that could grow considerably because the jury also found that Samsung’s infringements were “willful.”

As for Samsung’s claims against Apple, the jury seems to have shot them all down.

MORE: 19 incredible Apple secrets revealed in court

It’s going to take some time to digest the impact of the multipart verdict, but as The Verge‘s Bryan Bishop put it as he began recording the yeas and nays: “This is it. This is history.”

Samsung is almost certain to appeal the verdict, but Apple’s hand in the booming smartphone market has already been considerably strengthened. It may now ask the court to block the sale of any of the devices found to have infringed its patents. These include some of Samsung’s most popular smartphones, such as the Fascinate, Epic 4G and Galaxy S II.

Apple’s shares, which closed at $663.22 Friday, shot up roughly $12 in after hours trading. Google (GOOG), whose Android operating system the Samsung devices run, fell as much as $8 after the markets closed.

See: Will Apple now sue Google?

About the Author
By Philip Elmer-DeWitt
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