The two popular Smart phone brands, Samsung and Apple, are going head to head before the highest court in the United States in an argument over design patents and the company’s smart phones.
According to a CCTV America's reporter, Samsung played defense on Tuesday at the U.S. Supreme Court, where justices raised questions about how much the company should be required to pay in a high-stakes lawsuit.
At issue, whether the penalty against Samsung for copying a protected design should be total profits of the copy, or just part of the profits.
Apple alleges Samsung copied the iPhone’s round edges, home button and application interface. A lower court agreed – and awarded Apple $399 million.
“Samsung applied Apple’s iconic designs for one reason and one reason only and that was to sell phones,” Apple attorney Seth Waxman said.
But Samsung argues consumers buy smart phones, not just for what they look like but for how they work. Calculating a component’s contribution to that sale, its attorneys said is a better way to award damages.
“The total profits on a phone do not come altogether from the front face of the phone,” Samsung attorney, Kathleen Sullivan said.
Tech giants Facebook and Google backed Samsung’s argument. Fashion designer, Calvin Klein, sided with Apple.
Apple said design has never been more important and forcing knock-off artists to pay a high price will make counterfeiters think twice. Samsung counters that its phones contain more than 200,000 other patents that Apple does not own. So paying on the profits of the entire phone is unfair.
The justices will release their decision in June of next year.
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