The saga goes back to 2012, when a jury in California’s Northern District Court found Samsung handsets had violated Apple design patents.
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Samsung said in a court filing on Wednesday that it plans to petition the Supreme Court to hear an appeal over damages awarded to Apple in the first Apple v. Samsung jury trial.
Samsung has filed a final appeal in its patent infringement case against Apple, conforming that it is to take the case to the United States Supreme Court. In its request, Samsung’s legal team says, “The questions present issues of enormous importance to patent litigation and the scope of innovation, especially in high-technology industries”.
That part of the verdict – which has been pared from an original judgment of $1 billion – accounts for about $400 million of the $548 million in damages Samsung still must pay Apple from their first trial. The noise about the invalidity of the case was made to get headlines needed to bolster Samsung’s case.
Samsung recently won a victory after a recalculation was ordered for a portion of the damages, but the company’s counsel asked those proceedings to be halted pending the Supreme Court petition.
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Given the timing, the Supreme Court could decide by the end of its term next June whether to take the case. Apple can appeal the finding to other sections of the Patent Office, and finally to the federal court system as well, a process that can hold-up the outcome for years.
