• IP BLAWG

    Episode IV of Smartphone Wars: A New Hope

    Beverly A. Berneman
    12/13/16

    These are not the Apple damages that you are looking for. %CUT% On December 6, 2016, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court reversed a Federal Circuit ruling that Samsung had to pay Apple $399 million for infringing on Apple’s smartphone design patent for its interface. The judgment was calculated using Samsung’s profit on its entire phone and not just the profit related to the interface. At issue was how to interpret 120 year old design patent case. In the older case, the court held that a design patent infringer who applies any “article of manufacture” would be liable to the owner for its total profit. SCOTUS clarified this holding. In the case of a multicomponent product, the relevant “article of manufacture” for arriving at damages award, could be the end product. It could also be only a component of that product. SCOTUS refused to articulate a bright light test for determining whether the entire product or just the interface should be the basis for damages. The case has been remanded to determine the damages issue.

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