That Apple vs. Samsung patent fight you totally forgot about is still a thing. After being handed a terrible verdict a few years ago for copying the iPhone, Samsung somehow managed to shrink the fine from over $1 billion down to $400 million, and win a retrial.
Come 2018, the eighth year of this particular fight will bring us the retrial.
Judge Lucy Koh, who’s been presiding the case since it began in April 2011, is tired of the matter.
“I would prefer to not keep doing this until I retire,” she said at a hearing on Wednesday, according to CNET. “I would like this to be some closure for all of us.”
As a result of that hearing, the trial is now scheduled for May 14th, 2018, and it’s supposed to last five days. That gives both parties plenty of time to finally settle the issue.
It’s unlikely that Samsung will walk away without having to pay any damages to Apple. But the South Korean giant probably hopes it can lower the fine even more than it already did.
Apple, meanwhile, doesn’t appear to be ready to settle, and it certainly has no reason to do it. “Our case has always been about Samsung’s blatant copying of our ideas, and that was never in dispute,” the company said last December, per MacRumors . “We will continue to protect the years of hard work that has made iPhone the world’s most innovative and beloved product. We remain optimistic that the lower courts will again send a powerful signal that stealing isn’t right.”
There’s no denying that Samsung copied the iPhone, which turned out to be a brilliant gamble, regardless of what the final verdict will be in next year’s lawsuit.
