Back in January of this year Patently Apple posted a report titled "Apple's CEO Rebukes Washington's need for 'Balance' between National Security and Consumer Privacy." In that report we noted that National Security Officials had met with leading tech companies in a new effort to fight radical Islamism around the globe. Apple's CEO Tim Cook was one of the leaders attending to discuss how to better thwart violent extremists' use of the Internet. Apple had no intention of playing nice with the government and was specifically noted as actually lashing out at the high-level delegation of Obama administration officials and openly criticizing the White House for a lack of leadership and asking the administration to issue a strong public statement defending the use of unbreakable encryption. That's not what Washington was hoping to hear on their first meeting on the subject with the Tech industry's top players. Attorney General Loretta Lynch responded strongly to Cook by speaking of the necessary need for 'balance' between privacy and national security. Yesterday it was payback time for the DOJ.

According to a Reuters report, "The U.S. Department of Justice asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court ruling that had favored Apple Inc. over Samsung Electronics Co Ltd in smartphone patent litigation, and asked that it return the case to the trial court for more litigation.

Samsung had appealed a federal appeals court ruling to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear the case. The Justice Department submitted its view in an amicus brief on Wednesday.

An Apple spokeswoman declined to comment, while Samsung told Reuters in a statement it welcomes "overwhelming support" for overturning the appeals court ruling in favour of Apple from various parties including the U.S. government.

"If left uncorrected, the appeals court's ruling could lead to diminished innovation, pave the way for design troll patent litigation and negatively impact the economy and consumers," the South Korean firm said.

Reuters further noted that "In its amicus brief on Wednesday, the Justice Department said it was unclear whether Samsung had produced enough evidence to support its argument that phone components, not the entire phone, should be what matters when calculating damages.

The Supreme Court should send the case back for the trial court to determine whether a new trial is warranted on that issue, the Justice Department said.

How can anyone see this being anything but payback time for Tim Cook's push against the DOJ and FBI on several fronts over the course of this year? The DOJ siding with Samsung against an American company whose smartphone changed the mobile world forever is a stunning development and sad day.

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