On December 6, 2016, the United States Supreme Court handed down an important unanimous decision regarding damages in design patent cases, throwing out a $400 million damages award that Apple had won from Samsung over smartphones. See Samsung Elecs. Co. v. Apple Inc., ___ U.S. ___ (December 6, 2015) ("Slip Op."). This opinion demonstrates that the proper basis for design patent damages can be either the product sold to consumers or a component of that product, "whether sold separately or not." Under this ruling, design patent damages, in some instances, will be calculated similar to utility patent damages, where apportionment of damages to the claimed invention is the standard. In its opinion, the Court rejected the Federal Circuit's narrow reading of the phrase "article of manufacture" as used in the design patent damages statute (35 U.S.C. §289)...
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