Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple, Inc.
United States Supreme Court
137 S. Ct. 429 (2016)
Apple (plaintiff) held design patents on its iPhone, and after Samsung (defendant) released smartphones resembling it, a jury awarded Apple the full $399 million in profits Samsung earned from the infringing phones. Samsung argued the profits award should have been limited to the infringing article of manufacture -- like the screen or case -- rather than the entire phone, but the Federal Circuit affirmed, reasoning that consumers couldn't buy those components separately from the whole smartphone, so the components couldn't be the relevant "article of manufacture."
Whether, under 35 U.S.C. § 289, the relevant article of manufacture for calculating an infringer's profits must be the end product sold to the consumer.