Apple v Samsung Verdict is in

Apple scored a sweeping legal victory over Samsung Electronics on Friday as a U.S. jury found the Korean company had copied critical features of the hugely popular iPhone and iPad and awarded the U.S. company $1.05 billion in damages.

As for the countersuit, the jury found Apple did not violate any of Samsung's wireless standards or feature patents.

This verdict doesn't even matter in the long run. This was just another clash.

This case was going to be appealed, no matter who won, the second it started. This is just one more encounter on the case's way to the Supreme Court. Samsung has lost this skirmish, but not the war.

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Antarctica may be the only continent where the two aren't locked in battle.

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This case really shows only one thing. The patent system, especially when it comes to software, is utterly and totally broken. While I tend to side with Samsung—come on Apple you really believe that your patenting the rectangle makes sense in any sane world?--the whole fouled up patent system is doing nothing but blocking innovation, raising end-user prices, and enriching no one except law firms.

As you’ve likely heard, Apple and Samsung continue to duke it out in what commentators have called the “patent trial of the century.” The case involves more than three dozen devices (such as iPhones, iPads, and Galaxy phones and tablets) and various patents, allegedly covering Apple’s designs, “double-click-to-zoom,” 3G technology, and various other functionalities. But what’s really at stake?

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Apple v. Samsung is not the problem in itself, but it’s a symptom of a broken system. You can find some of our proposals to fix it at defendinnovation.org.

The patent system is in crisis, and it endangers the future of software development in the United States. Let's create a system that defends innovation, instead of hindering it.

• A patent covering software should be shorter: no more than five years from the application date.
• If the patent is invalid or there's no infringement, the trolls should have to pay the legal fees.
• Patent applicants should be required to provide an example of running software code for each claim in the patent.
• Infringers should avoid liability if they independently arrive at the patented invention.
• Patents and licenses should be public right away. Patent owners should be required to keep their public records up-to-date.
• The law should limit damages so that a patent owner can't collect millions if the patent represented only a tiny fraction of a defendant's product.
• Congress should commission  a study and hold hearings to examine whether software patents actually benefit our economy at all.