Samsung called on the United States Supreme Court to review a decision which awarded Apple hundreds of millions of dollars in damages due to some of the company's devices allegedly infringing on Cupertino's patents. Samsung is of the view that damages should be limited to infringing components of a device instead of being extended to all profits from the infringing device. The Supreme Court will be hearing the matter later this year in October. Many Silicon Valley companies have come out in support of Samsung's position but a group from the design industry today came out in support of Apple and told the Supreme Court that Apple rightly deserves the damages awarded for infringement of its design patents.
More than 100 designers and educators have signed a court brief in support of Apple, saying that the damages are fair because it's a product's unique look that drives people to buy it and that's something which needs to be protected. The list of designers who are supporting Apple include the likes of Alexander Wang, Calvin Klein and Paul Smith. Also on the list is the design director for Bentley Motors, the industrial design director at Parsons School of Design and the editor-in-chief of Wallpaper magazine Tony Chambers. The view they have expressed in the court brief is that the “look of the product comes to represent the underlying features, functions, and total user experience,” and that stealing a design leads to loss of sales which is why Apple deserves the damages that it has been awarded. Samsung isn't likely to be fazed by this as its position is being backed by tech giants like Google and Facebook.
