Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) stock touched an all time on Monday, following the favorable ruling in the high-stakes patent dispute against the Korean giant, Samsung.
On Monday, the first day of trading after the landmark ruling, the shares of the iPhone maker overtook its previous best of $668.87 to reach $675.68 at the end of trading, up $12.86, or 1.88%. In contrast, rival Samsung’s shares declined by some 7.5 percent on Monday. Due to the rally in the stock, the market value of the Cupertino based company jumped over 12 billion to reach $633.39 billion.
Such record highs were the direct result of its victory in the patent battle against Samsung Electronics on Friday, where the jury verdict found Samsung in violation of six out of the seven patent claims by Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and awarding damages nearly $1.05 billion. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) going for the kill, has now filed a motion to ban sales of eight infringing handsets, asking for an injunction till the final ruling against the Samsung devices.
On the other hand, the Korean major, requested on Sunday, to dissolve previous preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which does not infringe on Apple’s D’889 iPad design patent. Samsung has also requested the court to retain Apple’s $2.6 million bond, in lieu of a damages hearing.
The milestone verdict could have serious implications for the smartphone industry, where Samsung, the leader in the smartphone market, could have to redesign some of its hardware/software. The iPhone maker can now go after the other players like HTC, LG etc. The soon to be launched iPhone could receive a psychological boost as a result of this victory. A third party that could reap benefits from this battle is Nokia Corporation (NYSE:NOK), which is coming up new version of its flagship Lumia in partnership with software giant Microsoft Corporation (NADDAQ:MSFT). Other effected parties, if the injunction against Samsung is enforced, will be carriers, like Verizon Communications Inc. (NYSE:VZ) (NASDAQ:VZ), AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T), and Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S), whose profit margins will be squeezed. Among the three, Sprint will be the most effected considering its Samsung concentration. From an investment purpose, Qualcomm is the safest bet in the uncertain smartphone industry, as its components are used by both, Apple and Samsung. The legal win also forces other smartphone players to re-consider their software and design features in current or upcoming smartphones
