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Samsung appeal request denied in patent case against Apple

Samsung was contesting nearly $400 million in damages it feels were unfairly awarded. The appeals court doesn't want to hear it, leaving one last option before paying up.
Written by Kevin Tofel, Contributor

Samsung can't catch a break. On the very day it debuted the new Galaxy Note 5 and Galaxy S6 Edge+ phones, the company's appeal request for its 2012 court case with Apple was denied.

The San Jose Mercury News reports that Samsung's only recourse now is to either pay the hundreds of millions awarded to Apple or attempt to escalate the case to the U.S. Supreme Court:

"Without comment, the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Samsung's bid to reconsider a previous ruling largely backing Apple -- leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the only legal option left for Samsung to try to overturn hundreds of millions of dollars in damages it now owes Apple in their ongoing patent feud."

In the case, Samsung was found to have infringed on Apple's design patents when building phones and tablets such as the Galaxy S2 and nearly two dozen other products. Samsung was appealing approximately $399 million in damages that it feels were wrongly awarded.

Payment for damages originally totaled just over one billion dollars, but various appeals and re-hearings have reduced the amount that Samsung now has to pay Apple; pending one final appeal by Samsung to the U.S. Supreme Court.

With the case having gone on for three years at this point, Samsung might as well make the last ditch effort and request the one last appeal option it has.

Even if it does -- and the Supreme Court hears it -- I doubt Samsung will see much in the way of further reductions. It's nearly time to break out the checkbook.

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