Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously reversed a decision of the Federal Circuit in the long-running iPhone litigation between Apple and Samsung and we, the Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA), welcomed it.  The Federal Circuit had held that when a design patent is infringed, the plaintiff is entitled to the total profits from the infringing product—even where the infringing product has many components.  The lower court had permitted Apple to recover all of the profits from the sale of infringing Samsung Galaxy phones, despite the fact that the allegedly infringed elements were minor ornamental components of the overall product. 

For the past several years, SIIA has been trying to persuade Congress to change patent law to make it more difficult for non-practicing entities (e.g., trolls) to shake down technology businesses.   What we don’t need is additional court decisions that make matters worse.   To that end, SIIA, along with several leading tech companies, filed an amicus brief in the Supreme Court urging it to reverse the Federal Circuit’s decision in Apple v. Samsung.  (For those of you that are curious, the Federal Circuit decision is here). Apple and Samsung have been battling in court for the past several years over design patents, which cover only non-functional aesthetic elements of a particular product.   A person who uses that design without an authorization is an infringer, in the same way that someone who used Apple’s “slide to unlock” feature without a license would owe them a royalty.   Where the two kinds of patents ...

Apple Tells Supreme Court it Shouldn’t Bother Hearing Samsung’s Appeal (Re/Code) Apple filed arguments to the Supreme Court yesterday telling them that there is no reason for it to take up Samsung’s appeal in its seemingly endless patent dispute with Samsung.  Google and Facebook also filed arguments on the side of Samsung encouraging the Supreme Court to hear the appeal. Wall Street is Trying to Beat Silicon Valley at Its Own Game (Bloomberg BNA) Banks and Payments companies were awarded 1,192 patents over the past three years, a 36 percent increase over the previous three year period.  Financial institutions have been seeking to patent technologies related to financial services. Nvidia Wins Trial Brought by Samsung over Memory-Chip Patent (eWeek) Nvidia won a patent trial from Samsung over memory chip technology.  The complaint was filed in November 2014 as retaliation against Nvidia for an earlier suit Nvidia filed against Samsung regarding ...

PTAB Not Such a Threat to Patents, Report Says (Big Law Business) According to a report released yesterday by the legal analytics firm Lex Machina, reactions to patent holder losses are overblown.  The report found that in the 2,700 decisions in the Board’s first three years in existence, patents survive the process 66 percent of the time. After Five Years of Conflict with Apple, some Samsung Phone Features are Banned (Ars Technica) Apple finally won its years-long patent battle with Samsung which will ban the sale of certain Samsung smartphones. Most of these phones are older models that are no longer sold anyways. Apple Tried to Kill More Patents Than Anyone Else, By Far (Fortune) A new report shows that Apple has filed more patent challenges than anyone else at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.  The report shows that as of September 2012, Apple filed 252 PTAB challenges. GM’s Newly Acquired Patent Could be a Problem for Uber (Wired) GM will be bri ...