The Supreme Court of the United States Of America overturned Apple’s claim that Samsung has been copying their patents. Apple had previously won the case in 2012, as they convince the courts that Samsung had copied many of the iPhone’s features and infringed design patents. Their biggest claim was that the rectangular device copied their signature rounded corners and boxes and the fact that some Samsung phones had copied the home screen too.

However, the courts reversed the decision, which means that the case will now be returned to the Federal circuit where damages will be reassessed.  The judgment that was passed is a little complicated and it hinges on how the damages will be calculated. Apple won $400 million in damages, which was based on the profit Samsung made on that particular phone. 

Samsung argued in courts that the damages should not be based on the entire profits since only part of the design was copied from Apple. In agreement with Samsung, the courts overturned the decision and decided that the damages would be calculated this way.

Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor passed a judgement where she said that the damages will be calculated based on the entire profit of the infringing product or based on part of the profits. Neither Samsung nor Apple briefed the Supreme Court and the case is now being sent back to the federal circuit for further interpretation. The only thing we can gather from all of this is that patent wars can never end.