A decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals, which initially let Samsung off the hook for infringement of Apple patents, has been reversed. A separate case between Apple and Samsung will be heard on Tuesday to determine the amount Samsung should pay for copying iPhone designs.
Samsung can gloat no longer. Bloomberg reported in February that Apple had lost an appeal that let its rival Samsung off the hook from having to pay $119.6 million over patents for smartphone features, the U.S. appeals court found that two Apple patents, one of which was the slide-to-unlock feature, were invalid and a third patent was not infringed.
Samsung at that time was able to continue to use the features and was spared the cost of changing older models, and a jury decision that Apple was to pay $158,400 in damages to Samsung for a patent on video compression was upheld.
Today, however, Bloomberg has reported that Apple has won an appeals court ruling to reinstate the patent-infringement verdict against Samsung, including for its slide-to-unlock feature for smartphones and tablets.
The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled 8-3 today (October 7) that the $119.6 million verdict in February should not have been thrown out and asked the judge to consider increasing the amount.
The court had not stated that it would hear the case before all active judges and before stating the opinion. Dissenting, Circuit Judge Timothy Dyk objected to the full court taking on the case without allowing additional legal arguments. According to him, the majority opinion results in “profound changes” in the analysis of whether patents cover obvious variations of earlier ideas. The three judges who had thrown out the verdict in February were objectors to the majority opinion.
A separate case that Apple has filed against Samsung is to be heard on Tuesday, which will determine how much Samsung should pay for copying patented designs for Apple’s iPhone.
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