Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:0059935) recently requested that a U.S appeals court dismiss the order requiring it to pay Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) $930 million for infringing on rival’s patents.
During court this week, Samsung’s representative attorneys argued the award was simply absurd. The company’s lawyer Kathleen Sullivan offered the following message to the U.S. Supreme Court of Appeals, “They awarded Samsung’s total profit for all of these phones – this is absurd. It’s like awarding the profit of an entire car because of infringement of the design of the cupholder.”
Apple fights back
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s lawyer William Lee backed his client claiming it wasn’t the right decision. He explained, “After two years, their market share was plummeting. In three months, they came up with something that was identical [to the iPhone].”
At press time, there is no word on how the three judges.
The fued first started three years ago when the iPhone maker accused Samsung of copying the design of it’s products. The case subsequently expaneded to many other countries including South Korea, Australia, Germany, Italy, France, United Kingdom, and Japan. Since then, both companies reached agreement in other countries but are still duking it out in U.S. court.
The early days of the Apple-Samsung war
Two years ago, a court in California court awarded Apple with $1.05 billion. It was later reduced to $930 million but Samsung is still trying to repeal the cost. Just a few months ago, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) won $120 million on the second patent infringement trial, however this time it was discovered Apple also infringed on Samsung patents. The United States Patent and Trademark Office intervened a few weeks ago when it rejected one of Apple’s infringement claims regarding the autocomplete feature.
Neither Samsung nor Apple released a statement regarding the current matter. Both companies strive to be number one in the smartphone market.
