The long-running patent litigation between rivals Apple and Samsung goes back to a California trial court to decide how much the South Korean tech giant should pay its Cupertino-based competitor.
PCMag reports that the U.S. Federal Circuit Courts of Appeals turned down on Thursday without explaining Samsung's request for the court to restudy the case that Apple lodged against it for allegedly copying the American phonemaker's cellular phone design.
Samsung earlier charged a three-judge panel of wrongly deciding in favor of Apple a few months ago and sought for the full panel, made up of 12 judges, to rule on the case. The court upheld that Samsung breached Apple's patent, but it did not rule on the amount that Samsung must pay Apple.
A jury awarded Apple in 2012 $1 billion, but over the years, on Samsung's appeal, it was lowered to $548 million.
In the lawsuit filed in 2011, Apple accused Samsung of coveting the iPhone's success by copying the Apple design on Samsung's Galaxy lineup. Apple stated, "Almost overnight, Samsung's smartphone products transformed from bulky, walkie-talkie-type boxes into sleek, streamlines, narrow rectangles that mimicked the iPhone's appearance."
Samsung, which has the option of elevating the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, said it was disappointed by the court's decision but denied copying the iPhone design. In an e-mailed statement to CNET, Samsung said, "For decades, we have invested heavily in developing revolutionary innovations in the mobile industry and beyond. We are confident that our products do not infringe on Apple's design patents, and we will continue to take appropriate measures to protect our products and our intellectual property."
CNET believes it would be in Samsung's interest to just settle with Apple "if it wants to put the case behind it" rather than elevate the case to the Supreme Court which could be extremely difficult, the tech website warned.
An analyst sees the court's decision affecting not only Samsung, but the entire mobile phone industry.