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Apple's iPhone User Interface Held Functional for Trade Dress Infringement, But Not Design Patent Purposes
In the long-running Apple v. Samsung dispute, the Federal Circuit has highlighted a marked difference between the effectiveness of trade dress and design patents in protecting the visual characteristics of a product, which could potentially cost Apple hundreds of millions of dollars in lost damages. Explaining that both the registered and unregistered trade dress features of Apple's iPhone products are functional and thus not protectable, the Federal Circuit remanded the case back to the district court for entry of damages awards “not predicated on Apple's trade dress claims.” On the other hand, the court affirmed awards on design patents that arguably cover many of the same features present in the trade dress.
Trade Dress
The evisceration of the trade dress-related damages, which Samsung contends amount to $381,683,562, but which the Federal Circuit did not specifically account for, began with Apple's unregistered trade dress and the observation that trade dress can only protect the non-functional elements of an article. Apple Inc. v. Samsung Elecs. Co., Nos. 2014-1335, 2015-1029, slip op. at 7 (Fed Cir. May 18, 2015). The unregistered trade dress claimed various hardware and software features, such as the rounded-corner rectangular design of the iPhone, and a user-interface including “a matrix of colorful square icons with evenly rounded corners within the display screen, and an unchanging bottom dock of colorful square icons with evenly rounded corners set off from the display's other icons.” Id. at 9. Performing the analysis under Ninth Circuit law, the Federal Circuit concluded that Apple had not carried its allegedly heavy burden of proving non-functionality, noting that Apple “had not cited a single Ninth Circuit case that found a product configuration trade dress to be non-functional.” Id. at 7-8.
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