U.S. Supreme Court to Finally Begin Weighing in on Iconic Apple v. Samsung Dispute

The last we heard emerging from the deep and complex, jury-moderated wood-workings of Apple v. Samsung in their iconic, unscripted courtroom brawl of the century, a U.S. District Judge for the Northern California district court had just slapped Samsung with a whopping $548 million dollar injunction — a hefty sum, to say the least — although one which, at the time, Samsung vowed to “fight even up to the highest court in America.”

And now we can be assured, according to some recently leaked court documents, that the South Korean telecom-giant wasn’t in the slightest capacity joking when it suggested that last year.

Just last week, for instance, it was reported that the U.S. Supreme Court had released an official schedule of its upcoming hearing sessions for the remainder of the year — and, inso doing, the U.S. Legislative branch officially unveiled that it will be hearing Apple vs. Samsung’s years-old case, once and for all, beginning on October 11.

Back in March, the U.S. Supreme Court offered that it would at least hear Samsung’s arguments against Apple at “a later time” however, no time had officially been scheduled at the time of the original offer being laid out on the table.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court documents reveal that it will initiate discussions as to whether or not the original verdict handed down by regional courts (such as the whopping $548 million last December) is “too excessive.”

In its original appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court last year, Samsung argued that patents pertaining only to “patentable technologies” (and not particular devices, as a whole) should be considered as grounds for infringement. The U.S. District Court in Northern California had determined that Samsung’s penalties were subject to a wide array of devices and their respective patents, however.

While Apple has consistently maintained that its judgment over Samsung is “legally unexceptional” — and therefore, the South Korean telecom-giant is “undeserving” of having its case heard by the Supreme Court, the 8-judge panel will nonetheless sit down and convene on October 11, 2016, and is well-positioned to debate on two key questions that emerged from the original case.

The first of those two inquiries, according to court documents, is pertinent to the overall physical scope of the iPhone vs. Samsung handset design themes; while the second, to an understandably broader extent, applies to whether or not the damages assessed by the lower court should be measured based on “an infringing component,” or simply the device, “as a whole.”

“So what exactly is Samsung hoping to accomplish with this?” you might be wondering.

And, of course, in Samsung’s perfect world, the outcome of the Supreme Court’s decision would entail a complete reversal of last December’s $548 million injunction — as contingent, of course, upon the terms laid out by the lower courts last year.

However, I suppose it’s anyone’s fair guess as to what’s going to come from all of this — and that’s about the size of what remains to be seen here. We’ll keep you posted when we find out.

What are your thoughts about how this case will turn out? Will the Supreme Court stand up for Samsung or Apple? Let us know what you think in the comments!