SAN JOSE, Calif. _ The seven-year legal battle between two of the largest smartphone makers in the world is finally over.
Apple and Samsung agreed Wednesday to settle their long-running dispute over design and utility patent-infringement allegations at the U.S. District Court of Northern California in San Jose.
The lawsuit _ which reached the U.S. Supreme Court last year and was referred back to the federal court in San Jose _ was concluded in a quick missive written by attorneys from both sides and ordered by Judge Lucy Koh.
"Plaintiff Apple Inc. and Defendants Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Samsung Electronics America, Inc., and Samsung Telecommunications America, LLC would like to inform the Court that they have agreed to drop and settle their remaining claims and counterclaims in this matter," the settlement notice stated.
Neither Samsung nor Apple clarified what the terms of the settlement were.
The lawsuit started in 2011, when Apple alleged that Samsung's Nexus Android phones infringed on Apple's patents, trademarks, user interface and style. In August 2012, Apple won the initial jury verdict and was awarded $1.05 billion, but Koh ordered a retrial after deciding that the jury added an extra $399 million for violation of additional trademarks that weren't included in the trial.
The companies also collided in a second and separate 2014 trial in the same court over other patent-infringement claims linked to different Android phones.
Samsung paid $548 million of the $1.05 billion owed to Apple in 2015, but appealed all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to reverse the $399 million decision. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court threw out the $399 million decision and ordered the case to virtually restart in San Jose.
In May, at the retrial in San Jose, Apple won a $539 million award in a jury verdict.
