Apple

US Supreme Court to tackle the outcome of monster Apple vs. Samsung lawsuit tomorrow

Samsung is on the hook for $399 million in damages owed to Apple for stealing its patented iPhone designs in what's become the first legal battle over design patents in nearly 120 years.

A typical design patent covers the ornamental look of an object rather than any functional aspect.

According to Bloomberg this morning, the United States Supreme Court will determine the outcome of the monster Apple v. Samsung lawsuit on Tuesday, October 11.

Apple’s case against Samsung gets support from Dieter Rams, Calvin Klein & other designers

Apple's mega-lawsuit against Samsung is now in the hands of the United States Supreme Court, which should start hearing Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in October. Ahead of court proceedings, Apple today filed an amicus brief containing support from 111 famed designers.

Some of them include well-known names like Jony Ive's friend Dieter Rams, fashion designer Calvin Klein and iSpaceship building designers over at Lord Norman Foster.

Apple’s $120 million patent victory against Samsung overturned

An appeals court on Friday ruled that Samsung won’t have to pay Apple $119.6 million for infringing its patents, reports Bloomberg. The court found two of Apple's patents, including one for its slide-to-unlock feature, to be invalid and a third wasn’t infringed.

Today's ruling overturns a verdict reached by a California jury in May 2014, which found Samsung devices to infringe on Apple's patents. It also upholds a decision to make Apple pay Samsung $158,400 in damages for infringing on its video compression patent.

Apple wins US sales ban on outdated Samsung phones that are no longer sold

Following its multi-year patent spat with Samsung, Apple has finally won a United States sales ban on some older Samsung smartphones, FOSS Patents reported Tuesday.

The sales ban covers certain features of some Samsung phones, but the injunction is practically useless as it affects outdated devices, not the flagship Galaxy lineup, which are no longer available in the United States.

Apple wants additional $180 million in supplemental damages from Samsung

Apple wants a Christmas present from Samsung in the form of an additional $180 million in supplemental damages (damages for infringements after the cutoff date of the jury trial), FOSS Patents reported this past weekend.

The iPhone maker on Christmas Eve filed a motion seeking the additional $180 million on top of the initial $548 million settlement that Samsung has agreed to pay to Apple (though a reimbursement may be demanded later).

Samsung to pay Apple $548 million settlement, but reserves right to seek reimbursement

The long-standing Apple vs. Samsung patent dispute has been dragging on for five years now without any meaningful resolution in sight, despite Samsung announcing a settlement payment of $548 million to the iPhone maker today.

According to patent blog FOSS Patents, even though the Galaxy maker will send the payment to Apple by December 14 it's found a loophole that would give it the right to seek reimbursement of all amounts required to be paid as taxes, and then some more.

Latest Apple appeals court win may require Samsung to change its devices

The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday that Apple is entitled to an injunction that would bar Samsung from using its patented technology in its devices. The decision could force the Korean manufacturer to change certain features on its smartphones and tablets.

At the heart of the matter is 3 software features that Apple has patented: slide-to-unlock on a device's touchscreen, the automatic correction of spelling errors, and quick-linking, which allows a user to do things like tap on a phone number within a body of text to place a call.

Official: Samsung stole trade secrets from TSMC

Samsung lifted trade secrets from rival Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC), the world's #1 independent semiconductor foundry, Taiwan's top court has ruled.

According to a report published Wednesday by Taiwanese trade publication DigiTimes, the court has determined that Liang Mong-song, a former senior director of research and development at TSMC, revealed TSMC's trade secrets and patents related to its advanced FinFET process technology to Samsung Electronics.

The report makes no mention of Apple, but the connection couldn't be clearer: Samsung might have been able to leverage the stolen secrets to win orders for Apple's next-generation 'A9' processor. Prior reports have posited that both Samsung and TSMC got to build Apple's A9 chips on the advanced 14-nanometer FinFET process technology which uses entirely new three-dimensional transistors.

Court denies Samsung’s latest appeal request in ongoing patent case

The US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday denied Samsung's request to reconsider the court's decision to uphold damages awarded in its patent infringement case, reports the San Jose Mercury News. The damages amount to more than $400 million.

This is just the latest turn in what seems to be a never-ending patent case between Samsung and Apple. In 2012, a jury found Samsung guilty of infringing on Apple's patents and awarded the iPhone maker $1 billion in damages, which has since been cut in half.

Court rules iPhone looks can’t be protected, adjusts Samsung’s $930 million penalty

Monday, The United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said it's ruled that Samsung violated Apple's design patents but did not infringe on the Cupertino firm's trade dress intellectual property.

As reported by Reuters, the appeals court has now reversed part of Apple's $930 million verdict versus Samsung, ordering that the penalty be adjusted accordingly.

Apple drops permanent injunction quest in Samsung lawsuit

Apple filed a motion with the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in California yesterday, dropping its cross-appeal of Judge Lucy Koh's final judgement in its lawsuit against Samsung. The motion officially ends the company's pursuit of a product ban.

Now, this is just for the 2012 trial, not the one that ended in May. Apple had been looking to win a permanent injunction against all of Samsung's infringing devices in that case, and filed multiple appeals, but it appears to have given up on this particular battle...

Dutch court upholds sales ban of older Samsung Galaxy devices

Recode reports that a Dutch appeals court has upheld a lower court's sales ban of some older Samsung Galaxy devices that infringe on Apple's IP. The patent in question involves how iOS users are able to peak at the next photo in a gallery by swiping the current image.

The ruling will apply specifically to the Galaxy S2, and the Galaxy Ace—both of which include Samsung photo apps that run an exact copy of the feature—and it could possibly be extended to other Samsung devices found to similarly infringe on Apple's European patent...