US Supreme Court Sides With Samsung over Apple

The US Supreme Court has trashed an earlier ruling ordering Samsung to pay Apple $399 million for copying some iPhone designs.

19:07 07 December 2016

Samsung has the backing of the US Supreme Court in its smartphone battle with Apple. The top US court has trashed earlier ruling that ordered Samsung to pay Apple $399million for copying some iPhone designs. 

 

At issue was how much Samsung should pay Apple under the 1887 law that patent infringers pay “total profits”. The US Supreme Court said that the features at issue in the Samsung phones formed only a small part of the devices. The case now returns to a lower court to decide the amount of compensation that Samsung should pay. 

 

The battle between the two giant smartphone manufacturers began in 2011 when Apple sued Samsung for stealing the iPhone’s trademarked appearance as well as its technology. 

 

In 2012, a jury sided with Apple and the company was awarded nearly $930million in damages. 

Samsung had been seeking to pare back the money it paid to the iPhone maker. In May 2015, a US appeals court upheld the patent infringement verdict but said that iPhone’s appearance could not be protected through trademarks and then reduced Samsung’s payment.