That meant Samsung was still liable to pay Apple more than $500 million in connection with the original jury verdict.
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Samsung is not challenging the design patents themselves at the Supreme Court, although the Patent and Trademark Office has issued a preliminary ruling against Apple’s design patent for the flat surface of its iPhone.
The panel of judges on the federal court reduced California District Judge Lucy Koh’s damage assessment to $548 million, throwing out patent infringement claims on “trade dress” elements of the phones judges said were obvious.
The appeal from Samsung argues that the framework for US design patents is “outdated for the modern digital world” and should be reviewed by the court to resolve the problems for all companies, the story reported.
Several of the world’s technology titans filed briefs supporting Samsung while the case was in federal circuit court in Silicon Valley, according to the firm. “But the same is not true of smartphones, which contain countless other features that give them remarkable functionality wholly unrelated to their design”, Samsung told the high court.
The order is yet another win for Apple and its WilmerHale attorney William Lee in an ongoing patent feud with the company’s chief smartphone rival. “We applaud the court for finding Samsung’s behavior willful and for sending a loud and clear message that stealing isn’t right”. The companies have both been actively involved in a court battle over patents since quite a long time now. The case has been running from one year now.
“Samsung further reserves all rights to reclaim or obtain reimbursement of any judgment amounts paid by Samsung to any entity in the event the partial judgment is reversed, modified, vacated or set aside on appeal or otherwise, including as a result of any proceedings before the USPTO addressing the patents at issue or as a result of any petition for writ of certiorari filed with the Supreme Court”.
Samsung said the ruling “overprotects and overcompensates” Apple, and grants the Cupertino-based company “unjustified windfalls” in determining the value of its infringed patents.
The Supreme Court has yet not passed the statement if it would be accepting this case or not.
The hefty sum is significantly less than the billion dollars Apple sought at the outset of the 2012 patent trial in Northern California, and doesn’t put to rest an argument over who should pay Apple’s legal costs said to total $1.8 million.
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A further $382m will be owed on a later date if Apple is successful in its claim that Samsung also copied the packaging of its devices, but a jury will decide upon these damages next year.
