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As Shares Plummet, Samsung Vows To Continue Fighting Apple

A woman walks across banner advertising for Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note Seoul, South Korea on Monday.
Ahn Young-joon
/
AP
A woman walks across banner advertising for Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Note Seoul, South Korea on Monday.

Samsung sounded a defiant note today, saying it would continue its legal fight with Apple "until our arguments have been accepted."

Samsung came out badly battered on Friday when a jury awarded Apple more than a $1 billion in damages, after it found Samsung had willfully infringed upon some of Apple's patents.

In light of the news, reports The Washington Post, Samsung's stock plummeted 7.45 percent. Reuters estimates that could be worth $12 billion.

The Korean technology giant published an internal memo today in which it told employees that it sought to settle this lawsuit outside of court, but Apple "pressed on with a lawsuit, and we have had little choice but to counter-sue, so that we can protect our company."

Samsung added:

"The NDCA verdict starkly contrasts decisions made by courts in a number of other countries, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, and Korea, which have previously ruled that we did not copy Apple's designs. These courts also recognized our arguments concerning our standards patents. ...

"We trust that the consumers and the market will side with those who prioritize innovation over litigation, and we will prove this beyond doubt."

As Steve Mullis reported for All Tech Considered, Friday's decision has the potential to "alter the landscape of the smarthphone industry." Specifically, Apple can now ask a court to ban the sale of infringing products in the U.S., but how wide and what effect this could have remains to be seen.

PC Magazine reports, today, that Google has now weighed in on how this verdict affects them. Google makes Android, the operating system many smartphones, including those manufactured by Samsung, run on.

Google downplayed the decision.

"The court of appeals will review both infringement and the validity of the patent claims," a Google spokesperson told the magazine. "Most of these don't relate to the core Android operating system, and several are being re-examined by the US Patent Office. The mobile industry is moving fast and all players — including newcomers — are building upon ideas that have been around for decades. We work with our partners to give consumers innovative and affordable products, and we don't want anything to limit that."

Update at 3:09 p.m. ET. Preliminary Injunction:

The Associated Press reports that Apple has now filed to pull eight Samsung products from shelves.

AP reports:

"The products are: Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S2 AT&T, Galaxy S2, Galaxy S2 T-Mobile, Galaxy S2 Epic 4G, Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

A judge will decide the issue later."

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.