Samsung’s Patent Loss to Apple Is Appealed to Supreme Court - The New York Times

tbd if Samsung will still be in the smartphone business by the time this case is finalized

"The legal framework for design patents, according to Samsung, some other major technology companies and legal experts, is largely shaped by a 19th-century law intended to protect the designs of carpets, fireplace grates and ornamental spoons.

Back then, the design was the heart of such products, so seizing most or all of the gains of a copycat — known as the “total profit rule” — was justified. But today, a complex product like a modern smartphone is a dense bundle of intellectual property with more than 100,000 patents conceivably laying claim to some small aspect of the phone."

Samsung’s Patent Loss to Apple Is Appealed to Supreme Court - The New York Times