SIIA Lauds Supreme Court's Ruling in Apple-Samsung Design Patent Damages Case

The Software and Information Industry Association praised the Supreme Court's Tuesday ruling that reversed the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit's decision on damages Samsung is obligated to pay Apple for infringement of Apple's design patents. The Supreme Court remanded the case to the Federal Circuit, which may result in a further reduction of the damages Samsung must pay in the 2012 case, which stood at $548 million (see 1612060061). The top court “took an important first step in correcting the perverse incentives that could have led to a worsening of the patent troll problem,” said SIIA Senior Vice President-Public Policy Mark MacCarthy in a Wednesday news release. It will be critical for the Federal Circuit to “develop a test for identifying article of manufacture that does not create perverse incentives,” said SIIA General Counsel Chris Mohr. The Supreme Court declined to rule conclusively whether the article of manufacture for each of Apple's design patents involved in the Samsung dispute constitutes the entire smartphone or a component of the smartphone.