A number of Silicon Valley companies are backing Samsung in its bid for a rehearing of a decision that denied Samsung’s plea for damage limitations in its ongoing patent lawsuit with Apple.
Facebook, Google, eBay, HP, Dell and other Silicon Valley companies weighed in on the ongoing Samsung and Apple patent case, siding with the Korean company in a “friend of the court” briefing filed on July 1 to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals and first spotted by Inside Sources [PDF via AppleInsider]. The companies argue that the court ordering Samsung to turn over profits would lead to stifled innovation.
The companies claim that if the decision is allowed to stand, it will have a “devastating impact on companies,” who spend billions of dollars each year on research and development of complex technologies.
The companies say technology – such as smartphones, which include thousands of different hardware and software components – is too complex to award profits based on individual component infringements. The companies also argue that patent infringement cases over features such as user interface creation stifles innovation.
Apple responded, saying the companies thoughts should be dismissed. The Cupertino firm singled out Google, noting that the company has a strong interest in the case, due to its creation of the Android operating system, used by Samsung in the infringing devices, and says the Mountain View-based company cannot therefore claim to be an impartial “friend of the court.”
Samsung made a mid-June request, asking the court to reconsider a central part of its ruling that Apple would receive $548 million in damages. The South Korean electronics maker asked that the case be reheard with a full 12 judge panel, rather than the 3-judge roster used in the previous ruling.
