Smartphone Patent Litigation: Apple Versus Samsung

Smartphone Patent Litigation: Apple Versus Samsung 

Case Overview:

When smartphone patent litigation is concerned, the first thing that pops up in someone's mind is usually the long-standing battle between Apple and Samsung. These two smartphone giants have had litigation since 2011 which concerned Apple accusing Samsung of "copying some basic design features of the iPhone in competing devices". Recently, the courts ruled that the case will be taken up in the Supreme Court dealing with how damages are calculated. This case reveals the difficulties in compensation when dealing with patent litigation as a whole and the highly competitive smartphone litigation sector. 

Damage Calculation Case:


A recent Washington Post article mentioned that "This will be the first design patent case to make it to the Supreme Court in more than 120 years". And since 2012, a judge awarded Apple with over $1 billion, but it was later lowered after appeals processes". This $500 million damage cost was calculated in terms of "Samsung forfeiting all of its profits from the devices that allegedly infringed on Apple's patents". This is the "total profit" calculation method. 

Now, the Supreme Court must decide on whether this method is fair and equitable. Samsung argues that total profit does not make sense in this case and wants the damages to be calculated based on "money it made thanks to parts of the devices that infringed on the patents" instead of total profit from the whole device. 

Conclusion:

It will be interesting to see how the court weighs in on the damage cost calculation and if this figure of $500 million will be reduced significantly. A win here for Samsung may incentivize companies to take more risks in the smartphone industry as damages would be reduced to only the component which is infringed upon. A win for Apple indicates that the courts favor strongly on the patent holder's side. 

Source:

[1] Washington Post: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2016/03/21/the-smartphone-patent-war-between-apple-and-samsung-is-headed-to-the-supreme-court/