Don't Feel Sorry for Samsung

The $1 billion judgement is just 1.5 percent of annual revenues from Samsung's telecoms business.

The phone and tablet business is the reason behind Samsung's growth, earning around 70 percent of total profit. The group had net profit of $4.5 billion in April-June.

"Samsung has already made some design changes to new products since the litigation first started more than a year ago," said Seo Won-seok, an analyst at Korea Investment & Securities. "With the ruling, they are now more likely to make further changes or they could simply decide to raise product prices to cover patent-related payments."


"The impact on Samsung will be quite limited, as affected models are mostly legacy products and its new products did make some design changes to avoid potential litigation," said D.J. Jung, representative patent attorney for SU Intellectual Property.

"Still ... it's a sweeping loss in the most important market. It's inevitable that Samsung's brand will be negatively affected - Samsung could be perceived as a copycat."

Even though Samsung's flagship Galaxy S III phone was not involved in the trial, the jury validated Apple's patents on features and design elements that Apple could then try to wield against that product.

It is possible Apple would not have to seek an entirely new trial against the S III, but rather include it in a "contempt proceeding" which moves much faster, said Nick Rodelli, a lawyer and adviser to institutional investors for CFRA Research in Maryland.