Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
Page: 1
Filed: 08/04/2014
No. 2014-1335
IN THE
UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT
_______
APPLE INC., a California corporation
Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., a Korean corporation,
SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS AMERICA, INC., a New York corporation,
SAMSUNG TELECOMMUNICATIONS AMERICA LLC,
a Delaware limited liability company
Defendants-Appellants,
_________________
APPEAL FROM THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE
NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, CASE NO. 11-CV-1846,
JUDGE LUCY H. KOH
_________________
AMICI CURIAE BRIEF OF 54 DISTINGUISHED
INDUSTRIAL DESIGN PROFESSIONALS
IN SUPPORT OF AFFIRMANCE
_________________
Mark S. Davies
Katherine M. Kopp
ORRICK, HERRINGTON
& SUTCLIFFE LLP
1152 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 339-8400
Case: 14-1335
Page: 2
Filed: 08/04/2014
CERTIFICATE OF INTEREST
Pursuant to Federal Circuit Rules 29(a) and 47.4, counsel for
Amici Curiae certifies that:
1.
case by me are:
54 Distinguished Industrial Design Professionals in Support
of Affirmance (See Attachment to Certificate of Interest).
2.
The name of the real party in interest (if the party named in
Case: 14-1335
Page: 3
Filed: 08/04/2014
ii
Case: 14-1335
Page: 4
Filed: 08/04/2014
2.
3.
4.
Daniel W. Ashcraft
Chief Design Officer & CEO, Ashcraft Design
5.
Joseph M. Ballay
Principal & CAO, MAYA Design, Inc.
6.
7.
Institutions are listed for affiliation purposes only. All signatories are participating in their individual capacity and not on behalf of
their institutions.
*
iii
Case: 14-1335
Page: 5
Filed: 08/04/2014
8.
9.
10.
11.
Robert Brunner
Founder/Partner, Ammunition LLC
12.
13.
14.
Del Coates
Prof. Emeritus of Indus. Design, San Jose State Univ.
Former Chair of Indus. Design, College for Creative Studies
Former Research Designer, Ford's Advanced Vehicle Concepts
Dept.
Former Project Leader, Herman Miller Research Div.
Former President, Michigan Chapter IDSA
Co-Founder,Texas Chapter IDSA
15.
Case: 14-1335
Page: 6
Filed: 08/04/2014
16.
James Couch
VP Client Servs., Lextant
17.
18.
Mark Dziersk
Managing Director, LUNAR
Former President, IDSA
19.
John Edson
President, LUNAR
20.
Gerard Furbershaw
Co-Founder & VP of Licensing and Investments, LUNAR
21.
22.
23.
24.
Donald M. Genaro
Retired Senior Partner, Henry Dreyfuss Assocs.
25.
26.
Case: 14-1335
Page: 7
Filed: 08/04/2014
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
Case: 14-1335
Page: 8
Filed: 08/04/2014
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.
Sohrab Vossoughi
President, Ziba Design, Inc.
49.
Arnold Wasserman
Partner, Collective Invention
Co-Founder & Chairman, The Idea Factory
Former Director of Design, Raymond Loewy Co.
Former Director, Corporate Design & Human Factors, NCR Corp.
Former Director, Corporate Design Strategy, Xerox Corp
Former Fellow for Design Strategy, IDEO
50.
Allan E. Weaver
Industrial designer, retired
vii
Case: 14-1335
Page: 9
Filed: 08/04/2014
51.
52.
53.
54.
viii
Case: 14-1335
Page: 10
Filed: 08/04/2014
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES..................................................................... x
INTERESTS OF AMICI CURIAE ........................................................... 1
ARGUMENT ............................................................................................ 5
I.
B.
C.
II.
1.
2.
3.
CONCLUSION ....................................................................................... 35
ix
Case: 14-1335
Page: 11
Filed: 08/04/2014
TABLE OF AUTHORITIES
Page(s)
FEDERAL CASES
Catalina Lighting v. Lamps Plus,
295 F.3d 1277 (Fed. Cir. 2002) ........................................................... 35
Dobson v. Dornan,
118 U.S. 10 (1886)............................................................................... 32
Dobson v. Hartford Carpet Co.,
114 U.S. 439 (1885)............................................................................. 32
Egyptian Goddess, Inc. v. Swisa, Inc.,
543 F.3d 665 (Fed. Cir. 2008) (en banc) ............................................. 28
Gorham Co. v. White,
81 U.S. 511 (1872)......................................................................... 28, 35
LaserDynamics, Inc. v. Quanta Computer, Inc.,
694 F.3d 51 (Fed. Cir. 2013) ............................................................... 33
Mishawaka Rubber & Woolen Mfg. Co. v. S.S. Kresge Co.,
316 U.S. 203 (1942)............................................................................. 34
Nike, Inc. v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.,
138 F.3d 1347 (Fed. Cir. 1998) ..................................................... 32, 33
Sheldon v. Metro-Goldwyn Picture Corp.,
309 U.S. 390 (1940)....................................................................... 33, 34
Tamko Roofing Prods., Inc. v. Ideal Roofing Co., Ltd.,
282 F.3d 23 (1st Cir. 2002) ................................................................. 34
FEDERAL STATUTES
17 U.S.C. 504(b)..................................................................................... 34
35 U.S.C. 171 ..................................................................................... 2, 28
35 U.S.C. 289 ..................................................................................... 2, 29
x
Case: 14-1335
Page: 12
Filed: 08/04/2014
xi
Case: 14-1335
Page: 13
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 14
Filed: 08/04/2014
xiii
Case: 14-1335
Page: 15
Filed: 08/04/2014
xiv
Case: 14-1335
Page: 16
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 17
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 18
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 19
Filed: 08/04/2014
submit this brief to provide the Court with the relevant historical and
scientific material that rebuts each proposition.
First, design drives sales of products. Since the emergence of the
field of modern Industrial Design in the 1920s and 30s, product design
is the way to sell technological innovation and manufacturing knowhow. The visual design of a product comes to signify to the consumer
the underlying function, origin, and overall user experience associated
with that product.
Second, the most sensible policy in these circumstances remains
the one Congress adopted a long time ago: Infringement of a design
patent should result in award of the infringers total profits to the
designer. As Congress realized in 1887, it is the design that sells the
article, and so that makes it possible to realize any profit at all.
H.R. Rep. No. 1966 (1886), reprinted in 18 Cong. Rec. 834 (1887).
Design patents protect from misappropriation not only the overall
visual design of products, but the underlying attributes attached to the
design of the product and embodied in the mind of the consumer by the
products visual appearance. When an infringer copies the design of a
successful product, it captures the consumers understanding of what
Case: 14-1335
Page: 20
Filed: 08/04/2014
the product does and what the product means. Correctly understood,
the total profit earned from the infringing product is therefore the
fitting remedy for design patent infringement: without the infringing
design, there would be no sales and no profits.
In this case, the jury found that Samsung unlawfully copied the
iPhones patented visual design. The undersigned take no position on
whether that jury finding was correct. But assuming so, the jury
properly awarded to Apple all of Samsungs profits from selling the
infringing devices. Any other result would reflect a deep
misunderstanding of design.
ARGUMENT
I.
Case: 14-1335
Page: 21
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 22
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 23
Filed: 08/04/2014
Loewy was given three days to redesign it. [D]etect[ing] the inherent
hazards of the four protruding legs in a busy office, Loewy covered the
machine with Plasticine clay and encased it in a wooden cabinet to hide
the mechanisms:
Case: 14-1335
Page: 24
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 25
Filed: 08/04/2014
The resulting model, the Coldspot, saw its sales grow from 15,000 to
275,000 units within five years, making Sears a major supplier of
household appliances. Pulos, supra, at 358.
The competition between Ford and General Motors during the
1920s also illustrates the new focus on visual design. At the turn of the
twentieth century, that the automobile worked at all and could be
operated with reasonable reliability was sufficient. Id. at 242-43.
Descriptions of automobiles ranged from generally untidy to
positively ugly. David Gartman, Auto-Opium: A Social History of
American Automobile Design 23, 26 (Routledge 1994). The Model T was
typical:
Steve Simm
10
Case: 14-1335
Page: 26
Filed: 08/04/2014
Yet, Henry Ford initially saw no reason to enhance his design, satisfied
by the 3:1 sales gap between Ford and General Motors.
Then, in 1926, General Motors introduced a bold and colorful
Chevrolet:
11
Case: 14-1335
Page: 27
Filed: 08/04/2014
12
Case: 14-1335
Page: 28
Filed: 08/04/2014
3MMIMFIMMT
discipline.
USA
GJ
ro
V7
Peter MuilvMunk
ItoymorW LdeVry
USA
USA
nervy Dreyiu.
USA
USA
Noyes
USA
'Russel Wrigihe
USA
Case: 14-1335
Page: 29
Filed: 08/04/2014
14
Case: 14-1335
Page: 30
Filed: 08/04/2014
Gain a Competitive Edge, Sci. Am., Jul. 2014 at 96, 96 (the success of
any individual product may increasingly depend on its design.).
B.
The first three stages are: (1) the image-based stage (edges,
lines, and line endings are processed); (2) the surface-based stage (properties of surfaces in the external world are used to inform the image);
and (3) the object-based stage (the processing system makes inferences
about what might not be seen in the image, such as the hollow inside of
a box). Stephen E. Palmer, Vision Science, Photons to Phenomenology
85-92 (1999).
4
15
Case: 14-1335
Page: 31
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 32
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 33
Filed: 08/04/2014
18
Case: 14-1335
Page: 34
Filed: 08/04/2014
Davidson motorcycle is that the motorcycle is powerful, but it is HarleyDavidsons rugged, macho, freedom-seeking brand personality that
gives a backbone to this product attribute and convinces the customer of
its value. Id.
3.
Case: 14-1335
Page: 35
Filed: 08/04/2014
20
Case: 14-1335
Page: 36
Filed: 08/04/2014
Retinal
image
V
Image-based
processing
V
Surface-based
processing
Habituation /
Experience
Object-based
processing
Object
Origin
/11111,
Overall
experience/
emotional
connection
21
Case: 14-1335
C.
Page: 37
Filed: 08/04/2014
22
Case: 14-1335
Page: 38
Filed: 08/04/2014
23
Case: 14-1335
Page: 39
Filed: 08/04/2014
Case: 14-1335
Page: 40
Filed: 08/04/2014
past ten years; it now accounts for $71.2 billion dollars in retail sales.
See Ian MacKenzie et al., How Retailers Can Keep up with Consumers,
McKinsey & Co. (Oct. 2013), http://tinyurl.com/q9qq4re; Quarterly
Retail E-Commerce Sales 1st Quarter 2014, U.S. Census Bureau News,
(May 15, 2014, 10:00 AM), http://tinyurl.com/nfcfkv8.
Looking to the future, the focus on visual design will continue as
complex and sophisticated technological products become ever more
present. This trend is referred to as The Internet of Things (IoT).
Dave Evans, The Internet of Things: How the Next Evolution of the
Internet is Changing Everything, 1-2 (Cisco IBSG 2011) available at
http://tinyurl.com/88uhsx3. In this era, products like the modern
smartphone become part of a vast interconnected network of devices
that interactively share features and functions in order to extend
technological control over our everyday lives. Charles L. Mauro, UserCentered Design in the New World of Complex Design Problems,
Innovation 20, 21 (Winter 2012) available at
http://tinyurl.com/mj6ugdw. Already, a person can remotely manage
heating and air conditioning, lights, television, video camera, washer
and dryer, refrigerator, and door locks using any device with a
25
Case: 14-1335
Page: 41
Filed: 08/04/2014
26
Case: 14-1335
II.
Page: 42
Filed: 08/04/2014
more than the overall shape, style, and appearance of the product. As
explained above, the copier also takes the key identifying element under
which functional features are understood, the brand is identified, and
the total user experience is associated. When two products look the
same, they are often subconsciously processed in the consumers mind
as being the same. See Crilly, supra, at 7.2, p. 567 ([R]eference may
also be made to similar products within the same product category.
Products may be explicitly compared to competing products. This
informs purchase decisions because product form is often used to
differentiate products within the marketplace.); Rindova, supra, at 8
(Product form is used to increase the apparent similarity of the
innovations to familiar products, in order to tap into existing
understandings).
The established protection against such copying of a visual design
is the design patent: [w]hoever invents any new, original and
ornamental design for an article of manufacture may obtain a patent
27
Case: 14-1335
Page: 43
Filed: 08/04/2014
28
Case: 14-1335
Page: 44
Filed: 08/04/2014
29
Case: 14-1335
Page: 45
Filed: 08/04/2014
The law professors lodge three main complaints against the plain
language of 289: (1) it drastically overcompensates the owners of
design patents, and correspondingly undervalues technical innovation
and manufacturing know-how; (2) it is at odds with the normal rule for
utility patents and for copyrights and trademarks; and (3) it leaves
troubling questions about what to do with all the other claimants to a
share of the defendants profits. Law Professors Br. 2-3.6 We address
each in turn.
First, the law professors believe that an award of total profits in
cases of design patent infringement overcompensates the design patent
because design patent law requires that infringers ... pay the plaintiff
their entire profit from the sale of the infringing product, even if the
design was only a small feature of that product. Mark A Lemley, A
Rational System of Design Patent Remedies, 17 Stan. Tech. L. Rev. 219,
221, 235-37 (2013). So did another signatory of the professors brief.
See Thomas F. Cotter, Reining in Remedies in Patent Litigation: Three
(Increasingly Immodest) Proposals, 30 Santa Clara High Tech. L. J. 1,
7-8 (2013) (Unfortunately, the simple expedient of properly
apportioning the infringers profits does not appear to be permissible
under [ 289], absent some creative interpretation; a legislative fix
therefore would be desirable.).
The law professors also suggest that awarding total profits
punishes even innocent infringers. Law Professors Br. 2-3; 6. That
concern is irrelevant here because the jury found that Samsung
intentionally copied Apples patented designs. See Apple Br. 72.
6
30
Case: 14-1335
Page: 46
Filed: 08/04/2014
holder because not all the value of a product come[s] from design
patents. Id. at 10. Instead, it is more plausible that a functional
feature in a utility patent drives demand than that a patented design
does. Id.
But, as we explained in I.B and I.C above, the law professors have
it backwards. Congress finding that the infringers entire profit on the
article should be recoverable [because] it is the design that sells the
article, and so that makes it possible to realize any profit at all,
H.R. Rep. No. 1966 (1886), reprinted in 18 Cong. Rec. 834 (1887), is
even truer today. In the age of sophisticated and complex technological
products, the visual design of a product is more important, not less. See
Crilly, supra, at 9.1, p. 574. This does not mean that the 250,000
[utility] patents that arguably cover various aspects of a smartphone,
Law Professors Br. 10, are without value; it just means that no one
particular function or feature is driving the sale.
The law professors next objection to an award of total profits is
that it creates an inconsistency between the damages available for
infringing a design patent and the damages available for infringing a
utility patent, copyright or trademark. But the distinction between
31
Case: 14-1335
Page: 47
Filed: 08/04/2014
32
Case: 14-1335
Page: 48
Filed: 08/04/2014
the patented design and the article bearing the design, by creating a
new, additional remedy that applied only in cases of design patent
infringement. Nike, 138 F.3d at 1442; see also id. at 1443 (the
additional remedy created in 1887 for design patents was enacted to
overcome the allocation problem for designs).8
Moreover, Congresss distinction between design patents and
utility patents makes good sense. Unlike design patent infringers,
utility patent infringers may be held liable for copying features that
contribute to only a portion of the demand for the product.
LaserDynamics, Inc. v. Quanta Computer, Inc., 694 F.3d 51, 67-68 (Fed.
Cir. 2013). In instances of utility patent infringement, separately
apportioning damages thus makes sense because a total award may
improperly credit the protected feature as a driving factor in sales. Id.
The same is true for copyrights. A plaintiffs recovery for
copyright infringement may be apportioned to exclude profits derived
from the drawing power of non-copyrighted content. Sheldon v.
In 1946, Congress eliminated infringers profits as a remedy for
utility patent infringement. Act of Aug. 1, 1946, Ch. 726, 60 Stat. 778;
see also 7 Donald S. Chisum, Chisum On Patents: A Treatise On The
Law Of Patentability, Validity And Infringement 20.01 (2009). Yet it
left the total profit remedy for design patent infringement unchanged.
8
33
Case: 14-1335
Page: 49
Filed: 08/04/2014
Metro-Goldwyn Picture Corp., 309 U.S. 390, 404, 407 (1940); see also
17 U.S.C. 504(b).
Not so with trademark law, design patent laws closest analogue,
Law Professors Br. 6. Like design patent infringements, trademark
infringements are also based on captured sales and routinely result in
disgorgement of the infringers profit. See, e.g. Tamko Roofing Prods.,
Inc. v. Ideal Roofing Co., Ltd., 282 F.3d 23 (1st Cir. 2002). In fact, there
is a strong presumption against apportionment of an infringers profits
in trademark infringement cases. See Mishawaka Rubber & Woolen
Mfg. Co. v. S.S. Kresge Co., 316 U.S. 203, 207 (1942) (In the absence of
his proving the contrary, it promotes honesty and comports with
experience to assume that the wrongdoer who makes profits from the
sales of goods bearing a mark belonging to another was enabled to do so
because he was drawing upon the good will generated by that mark.).
Last, the law professors argue that [i]t is not even remotely
plausible that the shape of the Apple iTunes icon is what causes people
to buy the iPhone, and while the iPhones multiple design patents
happen to be owned by the same company, there is no reason to think
that will always be true. Law Professors Br. 8. But a design patent is
34
Case: 14-1335
Page: 50
Filed: 08/04/2014
35
Case: 14-1335
Page: 51
Filed: 08/04/2014
design of the product and embodied in the mind of the consumer by the
products visual appearance. The total profit earned from the infringing
product is thus the correct remedy for design patent infringement:
without the infringing design, there would be no sales and no profits.
Assuming that the jury correctly found that Samsungs products
infringed Apples valid design patents, the district courts judgment
should be affirmed.
Respectfully submitted,
By: /s/ Mark S. Davies
Mark S. Davies
Katherine M. Kopp
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
1152 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
(202) 339-8400
Rachel Wainer Apter
Will Melehani
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP
51 West 52nd Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 506-3353
Attorneys for Amici Curiae
36
Case: 14-1335
Page: 52
Filed: 08/04/2014
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE
I hereby certify that on this 4th day of August, 2014, the foregoing
document was filed with the Clerk of the Court for the United States
Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit by using the appellate CM/ECF
system which will automatically send email notification of such filing to
all registered users.
By: /s/ Mark S. Davies
Mark S. Davies
ORRICK, HERRINGTON &
SUTCLIFFE LLP
1152 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005
Telephone: (202) 339-8400
Fax: (202) 339-8500
Email: mark.davies@orrick.com
Attorney for Amici Curiae
Case: 14-1335
Page: 53
Filed: 08/04/2014
CERTIFICATE OF COMPLIANCE
UNDER FEDERAL RULE OF APPELLATE PROCEDURE
32(a)(7) AND FEDERAL CIRCUIT RULE 32
Counsel for Amici Curiae certifies that the brief contained herein
has a proportionally spaced 14-point typeface, and contains 6,037
words, based on the Word Count feature of Word 2010, including
footnotes and endnotes. Pursuant to Federal Rule of Appellate
Procedure 32(a)(7)(B)(iii) and Federal Circuit Rule 32(b), this word
count does not include the words contained in the Table of Contents or
Table of Authorities.