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Apple Tells Supreme Court It Shouldn’t Bother Hearing Samsung’s Appeal

“While this litigation may be high-profile, it is legally unexceptional, and Samsung has shown no reason for this Court to prolong it.”

Ina Fried

Apple filed its arguments to the Supreme Court Thursday, not surprisingly telling the nation’s highest court that there is no reason for it to take up Samsung’s appeal in the long-running patent dispute.

Samsung made its case in a December filing that the court could help settle a range of issues around design patents, particularly how damages are calculated. Google and Facebook also filed arguments encouraging the court to hear Samsung’s appeal.

Samsung has already paid Apple $548 million in the case, but says the legal principles at stake demand that it continue to fight the jury verdict, which was upheld by the Federal Circuit appeals court. Samsung was found to infringe on both design and utility patents related to the iPhone, though Samsung’s appeal focuses on the design patent portion of the verdict.

In its filing on Thursday, Apple argued that the method for awarding damages in design patents is a settled issue and not worthy of Supreme Court review.

“Samsung had its day in court — many days, in fact — and the properly instructed jury was well-justified in finding that Samsung copied Apple’s designs and should pay the damages that the statute expressly authorizes,” Apple said on Thursday. “While this litigation may be high-profile, it is legally unexceptional, and Samsung has shown no reason for this Court to prolong it.”

Samsung, responded to Apple’s filing, by pointing to the tech companies on its side: “If the legal precedent in this case stands, innovation could be diminished, competition could be stifled, and opportunistic lawsuits could have negative effects throughout the U.S. economy,” it said in a statement.

Apple’s full argument is here, while Samsung’s can be found here.

This article originally appeared on Recode.net.

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