Apple Inc. (AAPL) Shakes as Samsung Asks Supreme Court to Weaken Brand

The appeals court held that the South Korean electronics manufacturer infringed on certain Apple design patents - dealing with a phone's look and aesthetics but not functions - when making its own smartphones, affirming a roughly $548 million judgment against Samsung.

It seems Samsung Electronics Ltd (OTCMKTS: SSNLF) is in the mood to play hardball after it was ordered to stump up $548 million in damages to Apple Inc. Appeals court rulings have limited the amount patent owners can collect in damages when patented technology is used in a multi-component product.

Samsung's numbers are up markedly over last year: It has already won 2,743 more patents for invention this year compared with 2014, and could pick up a few more over the next two weeks.

Samsung's petition must first be accepted for review by the Supreme Court.

In most cases, a cash payout would mark the end of a legal spat. Samsung said the jury, in this case, had too much freedom to look at the overall appearance of the phones, rather than focus on those three elements.

Samsung is escalating this case because it believes that the way the laws were interpreted is not in line with modern times.

While smartphones by Samsung and others existed before Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, the device helped turned a nascent market into a cultural revolution.

Today is the deadline for Samsung to pay the stipulated amount and both parties are also scheduled to appear before the court for an oral argument.

Lawyers arrive at the San Jose federal courthouse with boxes of documents ahead of opening statements in the Apple v Samsung case on April 1, 2014. "We make these products, to delight our customers, not for our competitors to flagrantly copy", said Rachel Wolf Tulley, a spokeswoman for Apple said.

The agreement, however, came with one key proviso, as the two tech giants agreed to continue "to pursue the existing cases in U.S. courts".

In another sign that the legal fight would drag on, Apple also asked the court for a green light to file a motion asking for supplemental damages for products that weren't calculated into the award. The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to take up the case or not early next year.

Where a design patent applies to one component of a product, should the damages be limited to profits attributable just to that component?

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