The Supreme Court weighs in on design patent damages in the
intergalactic war to rule the smartphone universe
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... in our May 2016
Client Alert entitled "
Design Patents at the Supreme Court: A Picture is
Worth..." we promised to follow up on Samsung's appeal
to the Supreme Court of the 2015 decision of the Federal Circuit
Court of Appeals upholding a jury award to Apple of $400,000,000 in
damages for infringement of three U.S. design patents.
A design patent can be awarded by the United States Patent and
Trademark Office for "any new, original and ornamental design
for an article of manufacture."
This week in a decision favorable to Samsung, Justice Sotomayor,
writing for a unanimous eight, reversed the Federal Circuit, but
declined to enunciate a test for calculating damages under §
289 of the Patent Law that provides in part:
