AppleInsider Staff
In a bid to reduce or eliminate the $548 million the company has been forced to pay rival Apple over a patent dispute, Samsung on Friday filed a petition to have its appeal heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
While there is no guarantee that the Supreme Court will hear Samsung's case, it is the South Korean firm's last chance for a victory. Samsung has been at least partially rebuffed at every level of the justice system since first losing a patent infringement judgement in 2012.
"Samsung is escalating this case because it believes that the way the laws were interpreted is not in line with modern times," the company said in a statement provided to Reuters.
The petition continues with much the same refrain used by Samsung throughout the years-long legal battle.
"A patented design might be the essential feature of a spoon or rug. But the same is not true of smartphones, which contain countless other features that give them remarkable functionality wholly unrelated to their design," it reads.
If accepted, it would be the first design patent case heard by the Supreme Court in more than a century.
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54 Comments
Only the end of the world could have prevented this appeal. And I'm not entirely certain that would have done the trick.
I doubt the Supremes will take such a mundane case. It just doesn't seem worthy of such attention.
Pay up scumbags
IMHO even the most die-hard Apple fan should hope SCOTUS accepts this one. Based on the law as it's been interpreted a "patent troll" armed with the right design patent could legally lay claim to every penny of profit Apple has seen from the Apple Watch for instance (or God-forbid one of the iPhone models). A court finding Apple to be infringing would have no choice but to award 100% of the profits to the patent holder. Not just some portion but 100%. In essence design patents would wield more power and thus much more valuable to non-practicing entities than any utility/technical patent if the Supreme Court declines to hear the appeal.
Personally I think Apple is taking a chance of cutting off its nose to spite its face. I simply don't understand why they're taking the position they are regarding design patent claims against Samsung. A few hundred million now may come back to bite them in the butt.
EDIT: this is the appeal itself
http://www.scribd.com/doc/293255771/Samsung-vs-Apple-Samsung-s-Appeal-to-the-Supreme-Court
Pages marked 23 and 26 (or 37 and 41 in the PDF) begin what I would see as particularly meritorious arguments.