By Dan Levine
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (O:AAPL) on Friday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against Samsung Electronics Co Ltd (KS:005930) over whether Apple should receive damages in a case about smartphone design patents.
In its legal brief, Apple said Samsung has introduced "no evidence" that design patent damages should be decided on anything less than the value of an entire smartphone. Apple said there was no need for the Supreme Court to send the case back to a lower court for further proceedings.
The world's top smartphone rivals have been feuding over patents since 2011, when Apple sued Samsung in a northern California court, alleging infringement of the iPhone's patents, designs and trademarked appearance.
Following a 2012 jury trial, Samsung was ordered to pay Apple $930 million. Samsung has been trying to reduce that figure ever since.
Its efforts were partially rewarded in May 2015, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit reversed the trademark liability, bringing Samsung's exposure down to $548 million.
The appeals court, however, upheld Samsung's infringement of the iPhone's patents, including those related to the designs of the iPhone's rounded-corner front face, bezel and colorful grid of icons.
Samsung then asked the Supreme Court to review the design patent portion of the decision, calling the damages awarded excessive. In March, the justices agreed to look into whether courts should award in damages the total profits from a product that infringes a design patent, if the patent applies only to a component of the product.