DAMAGES FOR INFRINGING DESIGN PATENT FOR MULTICOMPONENT PRODUCT MAY BE BASED ON INFRINGER'S PROFIT FROM A COMPONENT OF THE PRODUCT SAYS SUPREME COURT

摘要

The United States Supreme Court has ruled that the Federal Circuit read the statute governing damages for the infringement of a design patent too narrowly when it held that Samsung Electronics, which a jury found had infringed design patents for components of Apple's iPhones, was liable for the entire $399 million in profit it had made from the sale of its infringing smartphones, and not just for the profits from the specific infringing components, which included a rectangular front face with rounded corners and a grid of 16 colorful icons on a black screen. Systems, Inc. v. Nor-dock, Inc., 2016 WL 379110 (U.S. 2016)