Roger Fingas
In the aftermath of a critical Supreme Court ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reopened a long-standing Apple lawsuit accusing Samsung of copying the iPhone's design.
The court has reinstated Samsung's appeal in a single-paragraph order, and simultaneously tossed a ruling ordering the Korean company to pay Apple $399 million, Law360 said late on Thursday. It will now be up to the Federal Circuit to decide how much Samsung actually owes.
In early December, the Supreme Court sided with Samsung's position that a company can't be forced to pay the whole profits from an infringing device when only some components are violating patents. Samsung previously likened this to surrendering the whole profits from a car because of an infringing cupholder.
The core lawsuit has been in progress for over five years, specifically charging Samsung with copying the original iPhone's design, pointing to elements like bezels and home screen layouts. While Apple won a court victory in 2012 awarding it over $1 billion in damages, that amount came down dramatically in subsequent retrials.
After the original iPhone was released in 2007, Samsung quickly adapted the look and functions of its own phones, taking on similar aesthetics and switching to a touch-based interface.
Apple's eventual lawsuit, however, was believed to be as much about Google's Android, the OS behind most Samsung devices. Former Apple Chief Steve Jobs considered Android "stolen," and threatened to go to "thermonuclear war" over the issue. Under Tim Cook, Apple has gradually wound down most Android-related legal actions.
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15 Comments
>Samsung steals the entire car.
"Its only a cup holder!!!"
Samsung' plan all along is to infringe,make boatloads of money, extend any lawsuit against them for forever, infringe on other patents, repeat.
Sounds like tryng to apply one country law to other regions business mentality, culture and practices. It is really hard to eliminate something that is acceptable in other region. Asia is about making cheap copies in addition to it's own genuine products. If Asian product is copied elswghere I do not belive that would be that big fuss. I know it is hard to accept that and one needs to fight for market and profit fairness, but we need to relaize the facts of life even if we do not agree with them to function in separate jurisdiction.