As we have covered in detail here before, Apple sued Samsung in 2011, for infringement of design patents covering a black rectangular front face with rounded corners, a rectangular front face with rounded corners and a raised rim, and a grid of 16 colorful icons on a black screen. A jury found that several Samsung smartphones did infringe those patents and awarded $399 million in damages to Apple for Samsung's design patent infringement. The Federal Circuit subsequently upheld the award.
Last week, the Supreme Court held that the relevant "article of manufacture" for arriving at a damages award for design patent infringement need not be the end product sold to the consumer, but may be only a component of that product. In Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al. v. Apple Inc., 580 U.S. ___, No. 15-777, slip op. (Dec. 6, 2016), a unanimous 8-0 opinion authored by Justice Sotomayor reversed the Federal Circuit's ruling that Apple was entitled to $399 million in damages, and remanded the case to the Federal Circuit.
To read more about the decision, please click here.
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