After seven years of litigation that spanned the globe, Apple and Samsung have definitively ended a patent battle launched after the US company accused its rival of "slavishly" copying the iPhone's groundbreaking design.
According to a brief US court filing Wednesday, the world's two biggest smartphone makers finally reached a settlement.
Financial terms were not revealed, and neither company elaborated on the court order by US District Court Judge Lucy Koh which dismissed the litigation "with prejudice" - leaving no option of reopening the case in future. The deal came a month after a federal court jury ordered the South Korean consumer electronics giant to pay Apple some $539 million for copying patented iPhone features.
That award was seen as a victory for Apple, which had argued in court that design was intrinsic to the iPhone, and so should enjoy protection as a whole against copycats beyond the usual patents afforded to hardware components.
The US action was the first of dozens of lawsuits spanning Europe, Asia and Australia. The rival companies went head to head over what constitutes protected design in both the hardware and features of their phones and tablet computers.
In the original US lawsuit filed in 2011, Apple said Samsung had "chosen to slavishly copy" the technology, interfaces and product design of the iPhone, which revolutionized mobile telephony when it was launched in 2007.
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