Many of Apple's claims were ridiculous (like just tablet shape patent), but Samsung dug themselves into the hole, but blantantly copying the look and feel of Apple's devices, including even packaging and exact visual design elements. They seem to be moving away from that now (Galaxy S3 looks really different from iPhone), but the damage is already done. If it was just about Samsung making devives with thin bezels and big screens it wouldn't end up like this.
That said 1 billion is pretty puny sum for a giant like Samsung and as previous cases have shown, without jury to sway, Apple doesn't seem to be able to really win such cases in other countries