After arguing in district court in San Jose for what seems like a decade now, the Apple-Samsung court battle is moving into the appellate realm.
Appeals Court Due to Take Up Apple-Samsung Case on Thursday
Samsung wants most or all of a $930 million judgment thrown out, while Apple argues that Samsung is a copycat who should pay up.
An appeals court is due Thursday to hear arguments from both sides in Samsung’s appeal of the verdict from the first Apple-Samsung case — the one that ended in 2013 with Apple being awarded $930 million in damages from two juries.
Samsung argues that much, if not all, of that amount should be thrown out, saying the verdict was excessive and unwarranted.
Apple, for its part, says most of the issues Samsung raises are factual matters for the trial courts rather than legal questions worthy of appellate review.
“Samsung seeks to belittle Apple’s intellectual property rights and particularly Apple’s design patents, though it tellingly does not challenge the design patents’ validity,” Apple writes in its brief in the case. “Samsung also tries to downplay the extent of its mimicry, but overwhelming evidence demonstrated that Samsung faced a ‘crisis of design’ and addressed it with shameless copying.”
Both sides have also lined up “friend of the court” filings from various third parties that agree with their position.
A brief was filed by 27 law professors on Samsung’s behalf, while Apple’s position has the backing of companies such as Oakley, Kohler and Novo Nordisk — which favor strong design patent protections — as well as various designers and design educators.
Of course, this is just one of the many legal battles between the two companies.
Samsung is also appealing the outcome of a more recent patent suit. In that one, which covered a newer generation of products and went to trial earlier this year, a jury awarded Apple $119.6 million in damages.
The two companies agreed in August to drop their non-U.S. litigation, though they did not settle their broader dispute.
And, even if Apple prevails in the appeal, a strong case can be made that Google and Samsung have essentially already won the bigger battle with Apple.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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