Apple has asked the US Supreme Court to give its final verdict on a patent infringement case involving Samsung, in which the iPhone maker seeks millions dollars of damages.
Apple and Samsung have been waging court battles since 2011, when Apple filed a suit against Samsung in a northern California court over alleged infringement of iPhone patents, designs and trademarks. Apple pleaded in its legal brief that Samsung did not provide any evidence to support its argument that design patent damages should be decided on one component of a smartphone, rather than the entire product, Reuters reported.
The lower court jury initially awrded $930m of damages in 2012 to Apple, with the court finding that Samsung had infringed six of Apple’s patents.
The South Korean electronics company has been trying to reduce the amount of damages to be paid to Apple through appeals and has managed to decrease the damages amount to $548m in 2015.
Out of the $548m, $390m involve damages for patent designs from the profits of eleven smartphones that infringed Apple’s two design patents.
Samsung previously pleaded with the Supreme Court that the damages awarded to Apple are excessive. The Supreme Court later agreed to consider whether the court should take into account total profit from a product when one component is infringed.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a filing that the case should be sent back to a lower court, the publication reported.
A spokesperson from Samsung noted that South Korean company received overwhelming support from leading patent experts, various concerned companies. He also noted that the ruling could lead to less innovation and open doors for design troll patent litigation and negatively impact the economy and consumers.
