Samsung Receives Support In Silicon Valley For Battle Against Apple
Samsung Receives Support In Silicon Valley For Battle Against Apple
Samsung is getting support from some powerful friends in Silicon Valley as it attempts to take its legal battle against Apple to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Tech companies including Facebook, Google, eBay, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and HP jointly filed amicus, or “friend of the court,” briefs in support of Samsung. The brief requests that the Supreme Court consider the patent-infringement case between the South Korean company and Apple, per CNET.
The goal? The tech companies want the court to provide a stronger definition of design patents and limit the damages that can be awarded. The companies point out that if the U.S. doesn’t reevaluate its patent laws, tech companies will be forced to pass on the costs of the lawsuits to consumers. The companies are also concerned that the case impacts the introduction of new products because of the heightened fear of lawsuits.
Samsung filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court in December asking the court to reexamine the decisions made in the patent infringement lawsuits that ended in 2012 between Apple and Samsung. Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $548 million.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C. downsized the original $930 million win over Samsung in May. While the court decided that Samsung copied some of Apple’s iPhone design patents, the court also ruled that Samsung didn’t infringe on Apple’s overall look and feel of the phone, or “trade dress,” per AppleInsider.
Google, Facebook, eBay, Dell and Hewlett-Packard filed a brief with the federal court last July in Samsung’s favor, claiming that Apple’s victory against Samsung covered minor technologies and ruling it an infringement could hurt companies developing “useful modern technologies.”
In addition to losing the battle on “trade dress,” Apple lost its bid for a sales ban on Samsung’s infringing phones and tablets, all which have been off the market for several years. Apple also tried for an additional $707 million in damages from Samsung, which it was denied.
