A tale of two numbers: Apple won a major battle today in Steve Jobs' "thermonuclear war" against Android, which he (and Apple) considered a "stolen product." The verdict, coincidentally, came exactly one year after Tim Cook became CEO of Apple.
Samsung must now pay over $1 billion in damages after a jury decided it was infringing on a number of Apple's patents. On the other hand, the jury found that Apple did not infringe on any of Samsung's patents, and awarded exactly $0 to Samsung.
Yet the $1 billion figure is almost irrelevant, even though it is the largest patent verdict in history. Samsung makes several billion dollars in profit each quarter, and Apple, the most valuable company in the world, surely does not need the money. Indeed, Steve Jobs said that he was willing to "spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong."
No, for Apple, this is about values, and its motivation rings clear in its statement:
At Apple, we value originality and innovation and pour our lives into making the best products on earth. We make these products to delight our customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy. We applaud the court for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right.