The U.S. Supreme Court Sides With Samsung In Fight With Apple (AAPL)

Despite Samsung copying key iPhone designs from Apple, the South Korean company does not have to fork over all the profits they made from the stolen designs.

A 8-0 ruling written by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor held that a violator of a patent does not always have to give over the entire profits from the sales of products that used stolen designs.

The U.S. Supreme Court threw out an appeals court ruling that Samsung had to pay Apple a $399 million penalty. The case has been now sent back to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington to decide how much Samsung has to pay.

In 2012, a jury verdict had said Samsung was initially supposed to pay Apple nearly $930 million in penalties.

In December of 2015, Samsung paid Apple $548 million, but then went to the Supreme Court saying it did not have to make $399 million of that payment for copying the patented designs of the iPhone.

Samsung had copied Apple’s iPhone’s rounded-corner front face, bezel and colorful grid of icons to represent programs and applications.

Disclaimer: We have no position in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) and have not been compensated for this article.