This case between Apple and Samsung has been going on for over four years now, and it has just been reopened, thanks to the ruling by the Supreme Court last month. The Supreme Court had overturned the ruling from the Court of Appeals, which saw Samsung sending Apple a check for $399 million. The issue that Samsung has had with the amount they owed Apple for infringing on their patents, is the fact that they don’t believe that they should have to fork over all of the profits from the products that infringed, when the patents only covered components. The patents that they infringed on included rounded corners, bezels and an icon grid. Samsung believes that they shouldn’t have to pay $399 million to use those.
With the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Samsung, this means that the case is sent back to the Court of Appeals, and it also means that the case is now re-opened. Additionally, the Court of Appeals are unable to hit Samsung with a fine that covers the sales of all devices sold with infringing patents, thanks to the Supreme Court’s decision. Now since Samsung has already paid Apple the $399 million, it likely means that once the court comes to a new judgement, Samsung will be getting a partial refund from Apple. Since Samsung cannot be liable to pay back all the profits from products that infringed, the amount should be lower, in fact it should be considerably lower, than what they have already paid.
The case between Apple and Samsung was one of the biggest cases in recent history, and it’s still not over. Apple was actually originally awarded just over a billion, but Samsung continued to appeal the decision and got it all the way down to $399 million. That is when the Supreme Court got involved and agreed to hear the case. Where they ultimately ruled in favor of Samsung, which sent the case back over to the Court of Appeals. So the Apple v. Samsung case is far from being over. But this case is setting precedent for future patent cases, which there are sure to be plenty in the near future.