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15 December 2015Patents

Samsung seeks to overturn Apple patent ruling at US Supreme Court

Samsung has requested that the US Supreme Court reverse a $399 million decision in its patent dispute with Apple, arguing that previous rulings overprotect design patents covering Apple’s smartphone devices.

The Korean smartphone manufacturer filed a writ of certiorari yesterday, December 14.

The dispute concerns the US District Court for the District of Northern California’s decision that several Samsung smartphones infringed three design patents owned by Apple. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit affirmed the decision earlier this year, awarding Apple $399 million for the infringement.

Design patents D618,677 and D593,087 cover the rectangular front face of a smartphone with curved corners, while ‘087 also introduces a rim surrounding the bottom of the device.

Design patent D604,305 relates to the shape of the grid displaying app icons on the graphical user interface.

Samsung has argued that both courts incorrectly interpreted the statute on design patent law.

Under section 289 of the US Patent Code, a party is liable for the total profit of a product that infringes another party’s design patent.

However, Samsung argued that section 289 precludes basic shapes and concepts, such as the rectangular design of a smartphone.

Furthermore, Samsung stated that the federal circuit was incorrect in ruling that Apple was owed the total profit from the products, because the designs’ contribution to a smartphone cover only specific, limited portions of the device. A smartphone, Samsung explained, is a “miniature internet browser, digital camera, video recorder, GPS navigator and music player”.

Samsung said: “In requiring Samsung to disgorge all its profits from its smartphones based on their use of a rounded rectangular form and grids of colourful icons, the federal circuit’s decision creates a sea change in the law of design patents that dramatically increases their value relative to other forms of intellectual property.

“Absent this court’s intervention, design patents will have whatever scope juries choose to give them, and a design patent holder will be entitled to the infringer’s profits on the entire product even if the patented design applies only to a part of the product and the design has only minor value relative to the product as a whole,” Samsung concluded.

In the dispute, Samsung has the support of high-profile technology companies such as Google, Facebook, HP and Dell. All four parties filed an amicus brief backing Samsung’s request for an en banc hearing at the federal circuit in July. Samsung’s request was denied in August.

Earlier this month, Samsung paid $548 million to Apple in damages to cover the design patent infringement as well as a separate utility patent breaches, but said it reserved the right to a refund pending a decision from the Supreme Court.

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7 December 2015   Samsung has agreed to pay Apple $548 million to settle its long-running patent infringement dispute with the rival company.
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20 January 2016   Pressure is growing on the US Supreme Court to grant Samsung’s writ seeking to restrict “unjustified windfalls” in design patent cases, after Google and Facebook threw their weight behind the Korean company in its dispute with Apple.
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21 March 2016   The US Supreme Court has accepted Samsung’s petition to hear its patent dispute with Apple centring on a $400 million infringement ruling.