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Page Number: 3

Cite as:  580 U. S. ____ (2016) 

1 

Opinion of the Court 

NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to formal revision before publication in the
preliminary  print  of  the  United  States  Reports.  Readers  are  requested  to
notify the Reporter of Decisions, Supreme Court of the United States, Wash-
ington,  D. C.  20543,  of  any  typographical  or  other  formal  errors,  in  order
that corrections may be made before the preliminary print goes to press. 

SUPREME COURT OF THE UNITED STATES 

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No. 15–777 
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SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS CO., LTD., ET AL., 

PETITIONERS v. APPLE INC.
 

ON WRIT OF CERTIORARI TO THE UNITED STATES COURT OF 

APPEALS FOR THE FEDERAL CIRCUIT
 

[December 6, 2016]

 JUSTICE SOTOMAYOR delivered the opinion of the Court. 
Section  289  of  the  Patent  Act  provides  a  damages  rem- 
edy specific to design patent infringement.  A person who
manufactures or sells “any article of manufacture to which 
[a patented] design or colorable imitation has been applied
shall  be  liable  to  the  owner  to  the  extent  of  his  total 
profit.”  35 U. S. C. §289.  In the case of a design for a single-
component product, such as a dinner plate, the product is 
the “article of manufacture” to which the design has been
applied.  In  the  case  of  a  design  for  a  multicomponent 
product, such as a kitchen oven, identifying the “article of
manufacture”  to  which  the  design  has  been  applied  is  a
more difficult task. 

This  case  involves  the  infringement  of  designs  for
smartphones.  The United States Court of Appeals for the 
Federal  Circuit  identified  the  entire  smartphone  as  the 
only  permissible  “article  of  manufacture”  for  the  purpose 
of calculating §289 damages because consumers could not 
separately purchase components of the smartphones.  The 
question  before  us  is  whether  that  reading  is  consistent
with §289.  We hold that it is not.