The US Supreme Court has agreed to consider Samsung’s appeal in its patent dispute with Apple, the Wall Street Journal reports. The justices, in a brief written order, said they would review a lower court decision from last year that affirmed jury findings that Samsung copied Apple’s patented iPhone designs. Samsung had been ordered to pay Apple USD 930 million in damages.
Part of that damages award is being revisited in a lower court this spring, but the Supreme Court’s decision to intervene in the case breathes new life into Samsung’s efforts to nullify USD 399 million in infringement damages that it argued were improperly awarded to Apple. Samsung in December agreed to pay Apple USD 548 million, though it reserved the right to seek reimbursement if it had success at the high court.
The two companies have been involved in several legal battles, but the Supreme Court’s review comes in the highest-profile patent case, which dates back to 2011. After a trial in 2012, a federal jury found that a range of Samsung devices, including the Galaxy S II and the Droid Charge, infringed Apple’s patents. Samsung’s petition to the Supreme Court seeks to attack a subset of those patents that focused on the iPhone design.
The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case during its next term, which begins in October.
