Apple To US Supreme Court: Don’t Prolong Patent Case Against Samsung

In December of last year, Samsung filed a request with the United States Supreme Court, urging America’s highest court to examine and review the rulings made in the series of patent violation cases that Apple had brought against the South Korean tech giant. As expected, the iPhone maker is not too happy with its fiercest rival’s plea. This week, the company filed its reply to Samsung’s filing, and expressed its desire for the case to be resolved quickly, and not drag it out for an indefinite time.

In the response that Apple filed, it pointed out that the case is of “legally unexceptional” nature, and asked that the US Supreme Court not “prolong” the proceedings. For good measure, the company also argued that the case is not important enough to require examination from the country’s highest court. 

Apple further added that as previously ruled by a jury, Samsung should be made to pay the damages accordingly, and not resort to tactics that further prolong the case. The patent case between Apple and Samsung ended back in 2012, with Samsung required to pay Apple an amount of $548 million.

With the Samsung-Apple patent case being examined by the US Supreme Court, it could produce a significant impact on the overall tech industry, especially on which products can be introduced in the market based on whether or not they violated any patents. Samsung believes that if the ruling stands, tech firms in the future may be hesitant to release new products for fear of being slapped with a patent case, like the one Apple filed against the South Korean tech giant. Samsung further added that only will there be a lessening of options available to consumers, competition could be ruined and innovation could be stifled, which would be bad for everybody, both end users and manufacturers alike.

Apple, of course, continues to defend its actions, insisting that it was only trying to protect what was legally its intellectual property. And since the patent is directly connected to Apple’s biggest cash cow -- iPhone devices -- it was expected for the company to protect its business interests, as any enterprise should.  

In the mobile industry, Apple and Samsung are fierce foes. Now, they continue to fuel that rivalry on the court of law. For Samsung, it is another headache for the South Korean company still reeling from a somewhat down year in terms of sales. But despite all that, it showed that it is not giving up the fight yet.