Samsung ,Apple Bring Patent Case to Appeals Court

Samsung this week requested that a U.S. appeals court dismiss an order for the company to pay Apple $930 million for infringing on its smartphone patents.

During the latest hearing in an ongoing case, Samsung attorney Kathleen Sullivan argued that the money awarded to Apple "was absurd."

She told a three-judge panel that the South Korean tech giant's Galaxy devices could not have copied Cupertino's design or trade dress patents because they don't carry the Apple logo or have an iPhone-like "home" button. As Reuters noted, Sullivan argued that the phones' speaker slots are also positioned differently.

Apple's lawyer, William Lee, continued to advocate for the $930 million fine, saying it was the right decision.

There was no indication which way the three judges would rule, Reuters said.

The feud began in 2011, when Apple accused its biggest competitor of copying the design of its iPhone and iPad devices. In the years since, the case expanded to dozens of courts around the globe, including South Korea, Japan, Australia, the Netherlands, Germany, France, Italy, and the United Kingdom.

And while those international disputes have been expunged, the companies continue to battle it out in U.S. courts.

In August 2012, a California jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion, which was later reduced to $930 million —the penalty that Samsung is still fighting.

Cupertino then won $120 million in a second patent infringement trial against Samsung, but was also found to infringe on one of its rival's patents.

A few months ago, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office stepped into the ring,rejecting one of Apple's infringement claims related to the "autocomplete" feature.

Samsung declined to comment on the case; Apple did not respond to PCMag's request.
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