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.

SCOTUS tells the Federal Circuit to back off of patent damages rules. %CUT% Under the Patent Act, a court may increase the damages up to three times of a judgment. Last year, in two decisions, the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals imposed strict limits on the plaintiffs’ ability to get enhanced damages. The Federal Circuit required a plaintiff to show two things: (1) that there was a high likelihood that the infringer’s actions constituted infringement; (2) that the infringer knew the risk. Under this standard, any defense by an accused infringer that was not frivolous would get them off the hook. SCOTUS reversed the Federal Circuit recognizing that the Patent Act left enhanced damages to the discretion of the trial court. SCOTUS acknowledged that Federal Circuit’s test was trying to keep enhanced damages for egregious cases only. But the test was too rigid. Justice Roberts wrote: “[The] threshold requirement excludes from discretionary punishment many of the most culpable offenders, such as the “wanton and malicious pirate” who intentionally infringes another's patent—with no doubts about its validity or any notion of a defense—for no purpose other than to steal the patentee's business.” The two cases will go back to the trial courts to determine the availability of enhanced damages using a less rigid and more neutral test.