A panel of three judges just decided to uphold the previous patent ruling in favor of Apple, and Samsung’s last hope in the battle might be to take it all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit of Washington earlier denied Samsung’s petition to rehear the case.
Samsung Has Decided To Contest the Fine
Samsung has chosen to contest the large fine that was given for allegedly infringing on copyrights of at least two dozen Apple patents. Currently, they have two choices, to either pay the fine, or to take the case all the way to the highest court of the land. The Federal Court also rejected Samsung’s appellate plea for the patent violations, noting that “For decades, they have invested heavily in developing revolutionary innovations in the mobile industry and beyond.” Samsung lost its appeal case against the original court ruling that ordered the technology company to pay $548 million for patent infringement of Apple’s designs. The said in a statement that they are disappointed that their request for an en banc hearing of the United States Court of Appeals was denied. They also said that they are confident that their products do not infringe on Apple’s design patents and they will continue to take the appropriate measures to protect their intellectual property and products.
The Current Patent Design Infringement Covers Only Minor Details
The patent design infringement in question at this time only covered a few minor details of the smartphone design, but doesn’t necessarily incorporate thousands of patents as originally alleged by Apple. Samsung, along with other companies related, believe that voting in favor of Apple could give them “unprecedented power” and promote unhealthy competition in the tech and mobile industry. The company state that if this decision is upheld, that it it would have a devastating impact on companies who spend billions of dollars annually to research and develop their respective complex technology and their individual components.
Apple Has Made No Comment, But This Isn’t the First Time They’ve Been to Court
Apple has not made any comments on the decision. This is definitely not the first time that the two technology giants have disputed in court over intellectual property, and this most recent trial has been costly and difficult for both parties.
