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19 May 2015Patents

US court partially upholds $930m Apple v Samsung ruling

A US appeals court has issued a mixed ruling in a dispute between Apple and Samsung after it partially upheld a $930 million damages ruling in favour of Apple but vacated damages awarded for trade dress dilution.

The Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issued its judgement yesterday (May 18) which affirmed a 2012 ruling from the US District Court for the Northern District of California that Samsung had infringed six Apple-owned patents.

The district court awarded Apple $640 million.

Despite upholding that portion of the damages the federal circuit vacated a $290 million award for trade dress infringement and sent it back to the district court to be reviewed.

The trade dress dispute centred on both a registered and unregistered trade dress design owned by Apple. In both instances, the federal circuit said the claims covered “functional” purposes which were not eligible for trademark protection.

Trade dress registration 3,470,983 covers the icons displayed on the screen of the iPhone. The unregistered trade dress design concerns the rectangular shape of the smartphone.

The federal circuit said the designs had a “utilitarian” purpose.

“It is clear that individual elements claimed by the ‘983 trade dress are functional ... and communicate to a consumer that if they hit an icon a function will occur,” the court said.

During the appeal, Samsung also said that two of the six patents it was found to have infringed should be declared invalid but the federal circuit rejected both claims.

A spokesperson for Samsung told WIPR: “We welcome the federal circuit’s ruling overturning infringement and damage claims against Samsung over trade dress.

“We remain confident that our products do not infringe Apple’s design patents and other intellectual property and we will continue to take all appropriate measures to protect our products.”

Apple did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication, but a spokesperson told news publication Reuters: “This is a victory for design and those who respect it.”

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