Breaking live from TheVerge, who are in the courtroom, we're hearing that the jury in Apple v. Samsung has rendered a verdict. Now, this is complicated - there were around 700 questions for the jury to answer on the instructions they were provided, so there are a lot of issues to go through here.

Apple's Claims

  • Samsung has been found to infringe on many of the accused devices for all three of Apple's asserted software patents. These patents can result in injunctive relief (decided at a later date), but are relatively small in terms of monetary implications. These include things like Apple's patents for scroll bounce back.
  • Samsung has been found to infringe on the D'677 iPhone front fascia design patent on almost all devices (except on the Samsung Ace), as well as the D'087 for a few devices - Samsung escaped on most devices here. On D'305, the jury found basically Samsung infringed on all devices, and this is the one that was for the arrangement of the iPhone home screen. These design patents can not only allow for injunctive relief, but for Apple to recover Samsung's profits from the infringing devices.
  • Samsung was not found to infringe on Apple's iPad design patent on any devices, nor its iPad trade dress.
  • Samsung was found to willfully infringe on D'677 (the iPhone design patent) and all its software patents - allowing Apple up to triple damages for its claims. That's a big one.
  • Patent Invalidity: None of Apple's patents were found to be invalid.
  • Apple was able to prove only that the iPhone 3G's trade dress is protectable. This is a bit of a blow.
  • Apple has proven registered iPhone and and unregistered iPhone 3G trade dress were diluted by a number of Samsung phones. This is very big - another area where that billions of dollars in damages can come into play.
  • Damages: $1.05 billion to Apple.
  • Antitrust claims: Samsung did not breach any standards-setting obligations.

Update: The jury was asked to reconsider Question 4 of the verdict form. After deliberating, the jury's answer was changed to "no" for the Intercept and one other device, and the damages amount officially changed to $1,049,343,540.

Samsung's Claims

  • Apple has been found to infringe none of Samsung's asserted patents.
  • None of Samsung's patents have been proven invalid.
  • Samsung is barred as a matter of law from asserting two of its patents against Apple because of "patent exhaustion."
  • Damages: $0 to Samsung.

In terms of the appellate process, there is only so much both parties can appeal. You can't simply ask the appellate court to review a verdict - the court of appeals' job is to asses matters of law - not fact. Patent infringement, for example, is a finding of fact. Samsung and Apple can dispute findings like whether something fell within the scope of patentable subject matter, legal issues surrounding computation of damages, and abuse of judicial discretion (evidence barred from use in trial), but you can't simply tell the court to re-decide the verdict. That means that unless something is found (eg, an invalid patent, or invalid trademark) as a matter of law that would actually affect the conclusion the jury reaches, the verdict will stand.

Also, don't forget - Apple has won on multiple counts that can still, on their own, result in the same financial or legal repercussions for Samsung, even if some allegations later fail as a result of an appellate decision.

In the 9th Circuit (of which California is a part), the rate of overturning decisions made by district courts in civil matters is a little over 10%. Those aren't great odds.