The Samsung Electronics Co. v. Apple case is headed to the Supreme Court of the United States and many fashion designers are siding with Apple, as shown by the amicus briefs filed in early August. The issue at hand is whether a company that infringes another company's patents is required to forfeit all profits, even if only certain parts of the item have infringed. Footwear News reached to Finnegan partner Aaron L. Parker for this thoughts.
Parker said, "If you think about it in terms of the fashion industry and footwear, there are hundreds of design patents on different aspects of the shoe, like the sole. Should you be entitled to all profits of the entire shoe if we're only talking about a specific portion of a shoe?" Many IP practitioners believe that a ruling in favor of Samsung would change the patent landscape, as brands historically were required to forfeit all profits, even for a partial violation.
