On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of US reversed a $399 million fine forced on Samsung for replicating Apple’s iPhone look and design, in an incident observed strongly for patent encroachment in the digital era.
The highness ruled 8-0 which stated that it is not necessary for Samsung to sacrifice the complete profits from its smartphones for violation on look and design apparatus, pushing back the case to a lower court. The 11-page ruling established that the $399 million fine was unsuitable because it symbolized “Samsung’s complete profit from the trade of its stolen design smartphones” for replicating the iPhone’s design.
But the court was frozen for a brief moment for exploring into fine points of the extent to which the patent breach should impact the fine.
“Both the companies ask us to go deeper and determine whether the relevant piece of manufacture is the particular smartphone element or the whole smartphone itself,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor commented in the judgment. “Doing so would need us to set up an analysis for recognizing the relevant piece of manufacture. Also we will need to transfer that record to relate that analysis in this case,” she further added.
The court pushed back the case to the lower court in Washington to determine the facts. People are eager and have been watching out to see how the court gives the judgment on this case. This is because it has been a century since the court has judged such a case.
Seeing the current status of the case and the capability of the court along with the jury, it seems that Samsung can get advantage of pity from the court. But it is hard to say as there is no clarity of the rule. It is not only the court but also the jury that will decide the fate of either of the companies.
