Smartphones and The Law

Tim Holbrook is a professor of law at Emory University School of Law. He is one of the nation's leading patent law experts, with commentary appearing in the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, CNN, Scientific American and Science on the patent system and on the Apple v. Samsung smartphone wars. On October 11th, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments over a $400 million verdict against Samsung for infringing several Apple iPhone design patents like the smartphone’s ability to create links automatically to webpages and phone numbers, and the “slide to unlock” screen function. The key to this case is that the Supreme Court case is about design patents, not utility patents. But what’s the difference, and why is that important?  Tim Holbrook explains.