Apple and Samsung argue patent case before Supreme Court; justices challenge value of design patents, which Samsung was found to have infringed
Wednesday, October 12, 2016 Killian Bell / iPhone Hacks : Supreme Court Quizzes Apple and Samsung on Value of Design Edith Roberts / SCOTUSblog : Wednesday round-up — Yesterday the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in three cases. Jack Purcher / Patently Apple : The Supreme Court to create new Design Patent Rules for the Lower Court, not Rule on the Case (Transcript Available) Rob Quinn / Newser : Last Time SCOTUS Heard a Case Like This, It Was 1885 Daniel Bader / Android Central : Daily news brief: A smarter Android, coming soon Grant Gross / Macworld : Supreme Court wrestles with size of damages for Apple design patents Bloomberg : Apple and Samsung Take Design Dispute to Supreme Court Buster Hein / Cult of Mac : Apple vs Samsung patent battle has U.S. Supreme Court confused Colin Daileda / Mashable : Apple and Samsung go head to head in fight that could reshape patent law Stephanie Condon / ZDNet : Samsung v. Apple: A Supreme Court case over “winner takes all” Kieren McCarthy / The Register : Cheer up Samsung! You might get back $400m for copying the iPhone Usman / iPhone in Canada Blog : Here's What Apple, Samsung Argued in America's Highest Court Today Roger Fingas / AppleInsider : US Supreme Court shows flexibility in first day of Apple v. Samsung case Jeff Gamet / The Mac Observer : Supreme Court Wrestles with Apple, Samsung Patent Arguments Michelle Maisto / eWeek : Samsung, Apple Bring Patent Fight to Supreme Court Patrick Seitz / Investor's Business Daily : Apple Stock Gains On Samsung Battery Pains; iPhone Loses Rival MacDailyNews : Seemingly frustrated U.S. Supreme Court hears Apple, Samsung patent case Oliver Haslam / Redmond Pie : Apple Vs. Samsung: Long-Running Design Lawsuit Heads To Supreme Court Today John Ribeiro / PCWorld : Supreme Court will hear dispute over Samsung vs. Apple damages on Tuesday John Ribeiro / InfoWorld : Supreme Court will hear Samsung, Apple damages dispute Bloomberg : Apple Questioned by Supreme Court on Size of Samsung Award Cristian Farias / The Huffington Post : Supreme Court Is Skeptical Samsung Should Pay Apple $400 Million Over iPhone Patent Rakesh Sharma / Investopedia : Supreme Court Begins Hearing Arguments In Apple, Samsung Patent Case (AAPL, SSNLF) Shelby Carpenter / Forbes : Why Tech Giants Want Samsung To Beat Apple In The Supreme Court Tweets: Jeff Roberts / @jeffjohnroberts : Apple-Samsung case at SCOTUS was all about.. the Volkswagen Beetle http://fortune.com/... Thanks: @hshaban
Context & Ripple Effects
This hearing is the payoff of a two-year appellate climb by Samsung: after the 2012 jury verdict, Samsung said it would petition the Supreme Court over the verdict, then formally asked the Court to take up the case in late 2015, and the justices agreed to hear the appeal in March 2016. What was originally a fight over whether Samsung copied the iPhone has narrowed into a fight over money.
The stakes at argument are the roughly $399 million in damages tied specifically to Samsung's design-patent infringement, and the open question the justices pressed both companies on is what base that award should be calculated against — the entire phone's profits or only the infringing components. How the Court answers determines whether the design-patent portion of the original verdict survives.
First-order effects
- The $399 million design-patent award against Samsung is immediately in limbo: the questioning signals the justices see the current all-device-profits damages theory as legally shaky, putting that slice of Apple's 2012 win at risk of being recalculated downward.
- Apple must defend its position that design-patent holders deserve the full profit of an infringing product, while Samsung argues the patented elements — rounded corners and the like — are minor features inside a complex device.
Second-order effects
- Whichever way the Court lands, every hardware maker copying-adjacent to a patented look re-prices its risk: if damages shrink to component-level profits, infringing a design patent becomes a cheaper calculated bet than licensing; if they hold, design teams get more veto power over industrial-design choices.
- A ruling that forces a new damages methodology sends the case back to the lower courts for another round of quantification — more years of litigation spend for both Apple and Samsung before either side sees final numbers.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, US design-patent law gets structurally recalibrated around the 'article of manufacture' question — damages pegged to the infringing feature rather than the whole product — which would mark the first major reset of design-patent remedies in over a century, given the last comparable precedent dates to the 1800s.
- The eventual outcome did reshape the case: the Court subsequently threw out the $399M penalty judgment and remanded it, confirming that the component-vs-product valuation question, not the infringement finding itself, is the durable legacy of this litigation.
The trend: Smartphone IP warfare is shifting from trial-by-trial verdicts to appellate resets, with the Supreme Court rewriting how much a copied design is actually worth.