Washington, Aug 25 (IANS): Apple scored a huge victory as a federal jury in California found rival Samsung guilty of "wilful" violations of a number of Apple's patents and awarded it more than $1 billion in damages.

In giving its verdict Friday, the jury did not recommend awarding Samsung any money in its counterclaims that Apple had violated some of its patents, CNN reported.

While Apple praised the court for "sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn't right", Samsung said the verdict should be viewed "as a loss for the American consumer".

"The mountain of evidence presented during the trial showed that Samsung's copying went far deeper than even we knew," Apple said in a statement.

Samsung countered by saying: "It will lead to fewer choices, less innovation, and potentially higher prices."

Apple had asked for $2.7 billion in damages, claiming that Samsung "ripped off" its iPad and iPhone designs and software for scores of Samsung devices, including the Nexus S 4G and S II.

Samsung countersued Apple for infringing on five of its patents and asked for $519 million.

Commenting on the verdict, CNN said it's likely to ripple across the entire smart phone industry as the jury found Samsung had infringed on software features like double-tap zooming and scrolling as also hardware style or icon setup on the design front.

As a result of the ruling, Apple could request an injunction against the Samsung devices that were found to have infringed on its patents. That means Samsung could be forced to take those gadgets off the market until they are changed, CNN said.

However, the jury offered one spot of good news for Samsung in ruling that its Galaxy Tab tablets did not infringe on Apple's design patents for the iPad.

Armed with loads of significant patents now deemed valid in court, Apple could go on to sue other companies -- namely, Android maker Google and its hardware partners, CNN said.