Apple and Samsung’s multi-million dollars case about stealing a product design and interface also known as the smartphone patent design theft went all the way up to the U.S Supreme Court this Tuesday.
It all started back in 2011 when Apple Inc, one of the biggest and the greatest electronics company took a fight against their rival Samsung Electronics about copying some of the components of their remarkable iPhone. Apple sued them for patent designs violation of their smartphone tremendous looks.
The case went in favor of Apple in 2012 when the jury’s verdict sided with Apple and Samsung was sued to pay out $930 million as a penalty. This is because according to Apple, Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones were copies of Apple’s iPhone in design and appearance. By using iPhone’s designs, Samsung became one of the world’s top smartphone making company – Apple’s Testimony
According to U.S law to violate the design of a product you do not need to copy it entirely, you can only copy a single component and it still counts as stealing the product’s rare and exclusive looks. It is still a crime. Following this, the law also says the patent violator of the product when sued does not have to pay out their entire profits from the sales, but only the profits received from the copied components.
When the case was reviewed by the lower courts in the past, Apple ruled over their biggest competitor Samsung and the judgment was in their favor to receive $399 million. This Tuesday the Supreme court sided with the South Korean smartphone company and threw out the appeals and judgments given from the previous courts to pay such big penalties to their biggest rival Apple.
Samsung had to pay out Apple about $548 million in December 2015. After doing this Samsung said that they want to take the case up to the nation’s highest court, The Supreme court. To prove that Apple should not receive $399 million from the money they got just because they copied the iPhone’s patented design, their corner-rounded front face look, and the colorful grid of icons on the screen’s interface.
Cases such as design patent fights have not reached up to the Supreme Court in over 120 years until the ongoing case with Apple and Samsung. This case is not over yet. By far we were informed that the case will slide down to the previous secondary courts so they will have to make an adjustment in the penalties that Samsung is supposed to pay Apple.
Josh Rosenstock, an Apple representative said in his statement that Samsung or any other smartphone company will make the wrong decision when they try to steal anything from iPhone, the world’s most innovative phone. Josh hopes that when the case will be brought back to the lower courts they will send a clear message to the world that stealing products designs of any kind is not appropriate. Especially when it comes to smartphones and similar technology.