Star designers sided with Apple in a longstanding court battle with Samsung Electronics, according to news reports.

More than 100 design experts told the U.S. Supreme Court that Samsung should pay the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to Apple for infringing the patented designs of iPhone, in a brief filed with the court on Thursday. 


The big names include Calvin Klein, Paul Smith and Alexander Wang and Lord Norman Foster, who is the designer behind Apple’s Campus 2 project.

The Supreme Court is slated to take on Samsung’s appeal of the ruling in favor of Apple in October.

The moves came after the South Korean tech giant recently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, contending that part of the $548 million in damages it was ordered to pay Apple is excessive, and stems from a misreading of the law.

Apple won a jury verdict of $548 million over claims that Samsung stole its design and technology of iPhone, including rounded-corner front face, bezel and grid of icons.

The group of the designers said on the day, the “look of the product comes to represent the underlying features, functions and total user experience,” from the consumers‘ perspective.

They said, Apple deserves to be compensated because a similar-looking Samsung phone could hurt Apple’s sales.

A Samsung official said, “We have received overwhelming support for overturning the ruling in favor of Apple, including from leading patent experts, numerous concerned companies and the U.S. government.”

If left uncorrected, the ruling “could lead to diminished innovation, pave the way for design troll patent litigation and negatively impact the economy and consumers,” the official added.

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)