Supreme Court hands Samsung a victory in Apple patent fight

WASHINGTON — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Samsung may not have to give up $399 million in profits for copying parts of the distinctive look of Apple’s iPhone. A federal law says that companies found liable for infringing design patents on an “article of manufacture” are liable for their total profits. Writing for the court, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said an article of manufacture may sometimes be the entire product sold to consumers — here, Samsung’s phones — and sometimes be the components found to have infringed a design patent. Apple’s patents covered specific design elements of the iPhone, including its black rectangular front face with rounded corners and its colorful grid of 16 icons. Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, a specialized court that handles patent appeals, ruled that the federal law “explicitly authorizes the award of total profit from the article of manufacture bearing the patented design.” The court appeared to acknowledge the possibility that “an award of a defendant’s entire profits for design patent infringement makes no sense in the modern world.” In the case of a design for a multicomponent product, such as a kitchen oven, identifying the ‘article of manufacture’ to which the design has been applied is a more difficult task. Technology companies filed briefs supporting Samsung, arguing that design patents are poorly suited to complex devices with many features, adding that they can give rise to disproportionate penalties.