The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit has reopened the never-ending Apple lawsuit accusing Samsung of copying the iPhone’s design, according to Law360. This comes just over a month after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Samsung may not have to pay all its profits from the smartphones found to infringe Apple’s design patents.
In a one-paragraph order, the appeals court reinstated Samsung’s appeal and vacated a 2015 Federal Circuit decision that the Korean company owed Apple $399 million for infringing patents that cover parts of the iPhone design. In December, the Supreme Court tossed out an appeals court ruling that said the South Korean company had to pay a $399 million penalty to its American rival for copying key iPhone designs.
The justices in their 8-0 ruling sent the case back to the lower court for further proceedings. The court held that a patent violator doesn’t always have to hand over its entire profits from the sales of products using stolen designs, if the designs covered only certain components and not the whole thing.
This is all part of the ongoing, global legal battle. Apple and Samsung have filed more than 30 lawsuits against each other across four continents. For example, Apple alleges that Samsung copied the slide-to-unlock technology of its iPhone and iPad devices.
