The Supreme Court announced Monday that
it would agree
to hear part of an appeal filed by Samsung seeking to overturn a $548
million damages award granted to Apple last year. Aside from finally closing
the door on this five-year saga between Apple and Samsung, SCOTUS’s decision is
newsworthy because it’s the first case before the Court involving design
patents since 1894. See Dunlop v.
Schofield, 152 U.S. 244 (1894).
The Court agreed
to hear arguments regarding whether Samsung is liable for all profits from the
sale of phones that infringed on Apple’s design patents, totaling $399 million
dollars, or whether they are liable only for the portion of those profits
attributable to the role those protected design elements played in actual phone
sales.
Back in 2012,
pursuant to a jury verdict, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District
of California ordered Samsung to pay 100% of its profits to Apple from the sale
of seven different phone models that were found to infringe on Apple’s design patents.
The lower court’s ruling on this issue was affirmed by the U.S. Court of
Appeals, Federal Circuit in May of last year.
In
its petition, Samsung argued that this award was “ridiculous” for not
taking into account how much or how little the protected design elements
contributed to the sales of Samsung’s products. Samsung also cited in its
petition that the Circuit Court agreed with this notion, but stated it was
compelled to uphold the lower court ruling pursuant to the Section 289 of the
Patent Act. See Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al.,
Petitioners v. Apple Inc.,
15-777, Petition for a writ of certiorari filed (U.S. Dec. 14, 2015).
While the
Supreme Court agreed to rule on this issue, it declined to take up the other
issues raised in Samsung’s petition, such as whether the scope of design
patents includes smartphone technology.
Nicknamed the “smartphone
patent wars”, the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung stretches back
to 2011. See the
full Apple
v. Samsung docket here.
* * *
Tara
Klamrowski is the director of IP content at One400. She writes about current IP
issues, IP trends, and how Docket Alarm can help attorneys and their clients
achieve success.
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