Get Back to the Beginning
The smartphone design patent case between Samsung Electronics and Apple will be sent back to where it all began: district court in San Jose, California.
According to foreign information technology (IT) news outlets, including CNET and AppleInsider, on Feb. 7 (local time), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit (CAFC) ordered that the case be sent back to a lower court. Accordingly, the Northern District Court of California, where the trials originally took place, will decide again on how much the South Korean company must pay to the American rival for copying key iPhone designs.
"We look forward to making our case at the district court and prevailing on behalf of all those who promote creativity, innovation and fair competition in the marketplace," Samsung said in a statement. Apple didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
In April 2011, Apple sued Samsung for infringing its smartphone and tablet patents with the U.S. District Court for the San Jose Division of the Northern District of California.
The district court and the appellate court ruled that Samsung Electronics infringed Apple’s three design patents – black square with rounded corners (D677), bezel liquid crystal display (D087) and grid-type app array (D305).
In 2015, the appellate court ruled in Apple’s favor, ordering Samsung to pay US$399 million (465.79 billion won) in damages and Samsung Electronics agreed to pay US$548 million (628.8 billion won) to Apple, of which US$399 million (465.79 billion won) was in dispute, first at the end of last year. The US$399 million (465.79 billion won) compensation represents all of the profits Samsung earned from its 11 Galaxy S models that Apple believed copied its design since 2010.
Samsung Electronics appealed the appellate court’s decision regarding the calculation of damages, arguing that the amount should not have been based on the total profits of each device, but rather the individual components that violated the patents. On December 6 last year, the Supreme Court unanimously decided in favor of Samsung Electronics, overturning that particular damages ruling.
The two companies are expected to recalculate the damages Samsung owes Apple after going through a battle over how far the scope of product patents are covered in the lower courts in the future.