US court rejects Samsung’s appeal against patent loss

THE

US Supreme Court recently refused to step back into the years-long feud over patents between the world’s top smartphone makers, declining to hear Samsung’s appeal of a lower court ruling that reinstated a jury award of about $120 million in favor of apple. The justices left in place a 2016 ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a verdict that found South Korea’s Samsung Electronics Co Ltd had infringed apple Inc’s patents on several popular features of the California-based company’s iPhone. Those included slide-tounlock, autocorrect and quick links, which automatically turn information like addresses and phone numbers into links. The Supreme Court in December 2016 sided with Samsung in a separate case over its fight with apple. In that one, the justices threw out a $399 million damages award against Samsung to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs. A judge in California in October ordered a new trial over damages in that case. The current appeal stems from a May 2014 verdict by a jury in federal court in San Jose, California, ordering Samsung to pay $119.6 million for using the apple features without permission. Infringement of the quick links feature accounted for nearly $99 million of the damages. A three-judge panel of the Federal Circuit, a Washington-based court that specializes in patent matters, had originally overturned the verdict, but it was reinstated in an October 2016 ruling by a full slate of 11 judges on that court.