Samsung and Apple have been fighting a court case for a long time that focuses on Apple accusing Samsung of multiple patent infringements, including multi-touch gestures, rounded corners and tap-to-zoom. Now some of the major tech companies have backed Samsung in legal battle against Apple and have asked the court to review its decision to order Samsung to turn over profits. Tech companies that support Samsung includes Google, Facebook, HP, Dell, eBay and some other firms.
Why the major tech companies have backed Samsung in legal battle against Apple?
According to the “friend of the court” briefing, major tech companies argued that the decision against Samsung would “lead to absurd results and have a devastating impact on companies who have spent billions of dollars annually on research and development for complex technologies and their components.”
According the petition, found by Inside Sources, modern technology is very complicated as it is made up of various components, many of which are used in various types of products. If the use of any of these components could be the basis for a lawsuit, every company would be accused of patent infringement, and innovation would be suppressed. This might be the reason that major tech companies have backed Samsung in legal battle against Apple.
The brief states “That feature—a result of a few lines out of millions of code—may appear only during a particular use of the product, on one screen display among hundreds. But the panel’s decision could allow the owner of the design patent to receive all profits generated by the product or platform, even if the infringing element was largely insignificant to the user.”
Earlier Samsung was ordered by the court to turn over the total profits of the Galaxy devices, which was worth $1 billion, but the Court of Appeals lowered that amount to $548 million. Now some major tech companies have backed Samsung in legal battle against Apple and this might further help Samsung.