In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Supreme Court has invalidated a lower-court ruling which said that Samsung must pay Apple $399 million for infringing on its design patents related to the iPhone. The justices said that the damage award was too high because the Federal Circuit Court considered the entire cost of the iPhone when it should have considered only the components covered by the design patent. The lower court now must reconsider the case.
The mobile development industry has been closely watching the lawsuit, which has dragged on for years and shows no sign of coming to an end anytime soon.