WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court on Monday opened the door to reducing the hundreds of millions of dollars in damages owed by Samsung to Apple in the blockbuster patent case between the world’s biggest smartphone makers.

The court agreed to hear one element of the South Korean giant’s appeal — it will not reconsider Samsung’s guilt, but will look at whether the penalty was excessive for copyright infringement of certain components within the electronics.

The highest US court posted the case on its weekly list of cases it would hear or decline, saying only that the appeal would be “limited to Question 2,” or whether patent infringement should result in handing over all profits from a particular component.

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2016