Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co.
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is the general title of a series of patent infringement lawsuits between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics in the United States Court system, regarding the design of smartphones and tablet computers. Between them, the two companies have dominated the manufacturing of smartphones since the early 2010s, and made about 40% of all smartphones sold worldwide as of 2024. In early 2011, Apple began litigating against Samsung in patent infringement suits, with Samsung typically filing countersuits with similar allegations. Apple's multinational litigation over technology patents became known as part of the smartphone wars: extensive litigation and fierce competition in the global market for consumer mobile communications.
| Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. | |
|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Argued October 11, 2016 Decided December 6, 2016 | |
| Full case name | Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., et al. v. Apple Inc. |
| Docket no. | 15-777 |
| Citations | 580 U.S. 53 (more) 137 S. Ct. 429; 196 L. Ed. 2d 363; 120 U.S.P.Q.2d 1749; 85 U.S.L.W. 4019 |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Case history | |
| Prior | 920 F. Supp. 2d 1079 (N.D. Cal. 2013); 926 F. Supp. 2d 1100 (N.D. Cal. 2013); 786 F.3d 983 (Fed. Cir. 2015); cert. granted, 136 S. Ct. 1453 (2016). |
| Subsequent | On remand, 678 F. App'x 1012 (Fed. Cir. 2017). |
| Holding | |
| The "article of manufacture," as used in Patent Act provision governing damages for design patent infringement, encompasses both a product sold to a consumer and a component of that product, and components of the infringing smartphones could be the relevant "article of manufacture," although consumers could not purchase those components separately from the smartphones. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinion | |
| Majority | Sotomayor, joined by unanimous |
| Laws applied | |
| 35 U.S.C. § 289 | |
By late 2011, Apple and Samsung were litigating about twenty ongoing cases in ten countries. By the following year the two companies were still embroiled in more than 50 lawsuits around the globe, with billions of dollars in damages claimed between them. While Apple won a ruling in its favor in the United States, Samsung won rulings in South Korea, Japan, and the United Kingdom. On June 4, 2013, Samsung won a limited ban from the U.S. International Trade Commission on sales of certain Apple products after the commission found Apple had violated a Samsung patent, but this was vetoed by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman.
In December 2016, the United States Supreme Court decided 8–0 to reverse a lower court decision that awarded hundreds of millions of dollars to Apple and remanded the case to the Federal Circuit Court court to determine which aspects of American patent law had been used correctly or incorrectly in the previous hearings. The two companies finally reached an out-of-court settlement in the United States in 2018.