Long ago, in a distant land, there were two rival companies and a common lawsuit. Apple and Samsung have faced each other in a trial in which Apple tries to prove the South Korean’s guilt in copying the design iPhone. For a moment, it looked like Samsung would throw in the towel when it agreed to pay $ 548 million to Apple, but soon it filed an order with the United States Supreme Court.
In June of this year, Samsung gave its opinion to the Supreme Court alleging that Apple was compensated for the total profits of the products (very high amount) when this account should take into account only some components of the smartphone. Then, the case was asked to return to the lower court, but Apple soon stood up against this request.
In this «cable war», those who joined the game were also names like Google, Facebook, Dell, HP, eBay and many others – all supporting the South Korean. Several companies in the technology sector are attentive to this process, fearing that Apple’s victory will become an open door for trolls of patents (they could continue the saga in search of easy money not only using utility patents, but now also design inventions). According to Reuters, the last time a design patent was analyzed was 120 years ago.
Perhaps the «fear» of companies can increase even more, now. That’s because Apple got the support of important names in the market. Great design professionals have become “friends of the court” [PDF] (amici curiae) in favor of the Apple. Among the companies that these professionals have already provided are Apple and Samsung, American Airlines, Calvin Klein, Citibank, Coca-Cola, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Google, IBM, NASA, Nike and much more. more.
In short, they believe that industrial design has a great importance in the product itself and that, therefore, Apple is entitled to claim the full amount in damages.
Believe me: this story still goes a long way …
[via MacRumors, AppleInsider]
