USA: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple Inc., Supreme Court of the United States, No. 15-777, 6 December 2016

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court reversed and remanded a Federal Circuit decision upholding a jury’s award of damages to Apple Inc. based on infringement of its design patents by Samsung Electronics, Co. Ltd. At issue was whether, in the case of a multicomponent product, the relevant "article of manufacture" must always be the end product sold to the consumer or whether it can also be a component of that product. The Court concluded that, in the case of a multicomponent product, the relevant "article of manufacture" for arriving at a damages award need not be the end product sold to the consumer but may be only a component of that product. The holding was reversed and the case was remanded for further proceedings consistent with the court’s opinion (Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple Inc., December 6, 2016, Sotomayor, S.).

A full summary of this case has been published on Kluwer IP Law.