In February Patently Apple reported that "the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., said Samsung Electronics Co Ltd did not infringe Apple's 'quick links' patent, and that two other patents covering the iPhone's slide-to-unlock and auto-correct features were invalid." It's being reported today that Apple has won their appeal that officially reinstates a patent-infringement verdict it won against Samsung, including the 'slide-to-unlock' feature for smartphones and tablets.

The verdict wasn't even close. Bloomberg reports that "In an 8-3 ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit said a three-judge panel was wrong to throw out the $119.6 million verdict in February. Instead, it ordered the trial judge to consider whether the judgment should be increased based on any intentional infringement by Samsung." Zing!

Circuit Judge Kimberly Moore wrote for the majority stating "That was a wrong decision, the court ruled Friday, because it relied on issues that were never raised on appeal or on information that was beyond the trial record. The jury verdict on each issue is supported by substantial evidence in the record."

Bloomberg further noted that "The Federal Circuit handles all patent appeals in the U.S., so its decisions have broad ramifications for how cases are handled in the courts and before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

The decision Friday comes less than a week before the U.S. Supreme Court considers another case Apple had filed against Samsung. That case, to be argued Tuesday in Washington, focuses on how much Samsung should pay for copying patented designs for Apple's iPhone."

The last few months have been a disaster for Samsung. Rushing out their Note7 smartphone to get ahead of the iPhone-7 launch has proven to be nothing short of an epic blunder. Cutting corner on safety has physically hurt their customers and putting others in grave danger as witnessed on Southwest Airlines Note7 battery explosion this week. Their smartphone fiasco has spread to China. And though Samsung denies there's any problem, that's what they told the press about the newly release replacement Note7's. Yet the explosion on the plane this past week was in fact a replacement Note7. So how could the Chinese or anyone trust them?

Just this morning Patently Apple pointed out that Samsung is steamrolling ahead to copy a feature that they know Apple will be introducing with their 2017 iPhone: Dropping the Home Button.

Samsung is obsessed with copying Apple and so it's great news to read today that the Federal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington has reversed an earlier judgement and believes that Samsung should actually pay more for its intentional infringement. That's usually referred to as 'Willful infringement' which carries a very hefty premium of at least double the verdict. At the end of the day, Samsung can't hide behind another appeal regarding these patents and so finally they're legally recognized as intentionally being what we've all known for years: an infringing COPYCAT.

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