Last Thursday we posted a report titled "Xiaomi's Barra Says that they can't allow a Company (Apple) to Take Ownership of Smartphone Design." In that report we noted the incredible statement by Bara who said that "I just don't think that we can allow a company to take ownership of things that just are or how they are, right?" The "Things that just are" were designs by Apple that prior to the iPhone weren't in existence. While I thought Barra's statement was crazy at the time, today's revelations that Google, Facebook, Dell, HP, eBay and a collection of other large Silicon Valley companies have sided with Samsung in its battle over patents with Apple takes the cake.

According to a new report published today, the coalition filed a motion with the US Federal Circuit Court of Appeals supporting Samsung's appeal over damages related to alleged patent infringement, saying that the ruling will have 'significant detrimental consequences for the continued development of useful modern technologies' if left to stand.

Apple was awarded more than $1bn in the first patent trial in 2012. Since then Samsung has appealed multiple times to have the sum reduced or the judgment overturned. Samsung was later ordered to pay Apple the 'total profit' of its infringing Galaxy smartphones. Apple then sued Samsung for $2bn last year. Samsung's appeal is still ongoing, and now supported by the Silicon Valley coalition's amicus brief.

The coalition argues that the design patents covered only minor features and that should the court uphold the judgment and force Samsung to pay Apple damages over patent infringements it would be detrimental to the development of the industry and consumer choice.

The coalition's brief added that "If allowed to stand, that decision will lead to absurd results and have a devastating impact on companies who spend billions of dollars annually on research and development for complex technologies and their components."

Apple has argued that the support of other companies in the patent battle should be ignored by the court, and that Google's involvement in particular should be dismissed.

The report lastly noted that "Should the court uphold Apple's victory and force Samsung to pay damages, it could open up other companies including Google to further patent infringement lawsuits." Yes it would and should. Below is a photo that Apple's CEO presented in 2007 showing what so-called smartphones looked like at the time. Apple's revolutionary design changed the way phones were made forever. That's what made Xiaomi's Barra statement ignorant and the whining of this coalition absurd. One Company, Apple, outsmarted the entire industry and turned it on its head and now the losers don't like it and believe in numbers they can persuade the Courts to side with them to let Samsung off the hook.

That's funny? When Samsung wants to be paid for their technologies related to 4G or LTE that's okay. But Apple reinvents the smartphone legitimately and Samsung copies them illegally, takes a fit when they're caught and now has gotten big name tech partners to actually  challenge Apple's rightful patent infringement victory to make Samsung happy. The whole matter is madness. 

About Making Comments on our Site: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit any comments. Comments are reviewed daily from 4am to 6pm PST and sporadically over the weekend.