Supreme Court to hear Apple v. Samsung appeal on Oct. 11

The U.S. Supreme Court released a schedule of its upcoming October term sessions on Wednesday, announcing it will hear Samsung's appeal of a contentious patent lawsuit involving Apple on Oct. 11.

America's highest court said in March that it would offer an opinion on Apple's court win over Samsung, but had not blocked off an official hearing date until today.

The Supreme Court will discuss whether penalties assessed in a California federal court case over infringement of iPhone design patents, for which Samsung paid out $548 million in December, were excessive. In its petition to the court last year, Samsung asserted damages in patent cases pertaining to complex devices like smartphones should be based on patented components, not total profits from device sales.

In particular, the court has been petitioned to hear two questions. The first relates to design patent scope, while another asks whether patent trial damages should be assessed based on profits attributable to an infringing component or as a measure of total profits.

Apple maintains its case against Samsung is "legally unexceptional" and is therefore undeserving of review by the Supreme Court.

Depending on the outcome and ensuing Supreme Court opinion, Samsung expects to be reimbursed for its $548 million payment, a contingency afforded by terms included in the initial payout last year.

17 Comments

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

About 8 years ago

This case being picked up at all is a demonstration of money buying power and influence.

Apple is *regularly* found against to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars for obscure patent infringements, meanwhile Samsung are petitioning the supreme court to validate it's business model of copying - literally reducing any incentive to innovate at all.

We have already seen Apple change their iPhone strategy by becoming less reliant on simple patent protected ideas and instead to difficult and expensive to reproduce hardware and service offerings. (E.g. Apple Music, Apple Pay, 3D touch, finger print sensor etc.)

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

About 8 years ago

I also find it interesting that so many businesses are accepting endorsements and advertising dollars from Samsung. I have to wonder where they are getting all that money, it sure isn't from the (lack of) profit from smartphones. Costco sells Samsung TVs almost exclusively along with a variety of other Samsung products. Yes there are a few Apple products but they all fit on one table (plus the AppleTV in 1-ft of shelf space). I guess people assume Samsung is an American company and they are buying American.

metrix 256 comments · 15 Years

About 8 years ago

Totally disgusted with this Samsung, no ethics whatsoever. A government sponsored monopoly that looks the other way for all things that are almost criminal.