Samsung Takes Apple Patent Case To Supreme Court

South Korean multinational conglomerate company, Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KRX: 005930), is now taking its 2012 patent legal case with giant multinational technology company, Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), to the United States Supreme Court. “But the same is not true of smartphones, which contain countless other features that give them remarkable functionality wholly unrelated to their design”, Samsung said in its petition to the court, which hasn’t heard a case on the infringed appearance of a product, rather than its functionality, in more than 100 years.

In its petition to the high court, Samsung said it should not have had to make as much as $399 million of that payout for copying the patented designs of the iPhone’s rounded-corner front face, bezel, and gridded icons. In a patent fight with Apple, Samsung is asking the Supreme Court to take a digital-a…

First, suggests the company’s lawyers, the judge failed to properly instruct the jury on the difference between “functional” and “ornamental” features. The appeals court said the iPhone’s appearance could not be protected through trademarks. In its original patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung, Apple argued that Samsung’s smartphones mimicked Apple’s design, with a rectangular body, rounded edges and other features.

Second, the company says that the damages awarded were too high.

The other issue at the Supreme Court is whether a court can order Samsung to pay Apple every penny it made from the phones at issue when the disputed features are a tiny part of the product. “Samsung is escalating this case because it believes that the way the laws were interpreted is not in line with modern times”, Samsung followed up their appeal with this official statement.

The company likened the case to a vehicle company being ordered to hand over all its profits on a auto if the company was found to have copied a patented cupholder.

The two hi-tech behemoths went to court over the designs that have now become commonplace on most popular smartphones, with a court ruling in 2012 in favor of Apple. The companies named in the brief argued that the previous decision in the Samsung-Apple case could stifle innovation and limit consumer choice if it continued to stand. For both Apple and Samsung, the stakes in the ongoing case are huge because of its implications for competition in the multibillion-dollar mobile device market.

“While Samsung prefers to compete in the marketplace, not the courtroom, the company feels that it is important to appeal this case to the US Supreme Court on behalf of all US companies, big and small, that could be affected if this legal precedent stands”, the company said in an email response to an AFP inquiry.