111 designers including Dieter Rams & Calvin Klein back Apple in Supreme Court patent case against Samsung

The United States Supreme Court is set to take on Samsung’s appeal over Apple’s design patent case in two months, and today Apple has submitted an amicus brief with support from 111 famed designers ahead of the trial. Prominent names featured in the amicus brief supporting Apple include Dieter Rams, Calvin Klein, and Lord Norman Foster who is the designer behind Apple’s Campus 2 project. The Supreme Court is scheduled to take on Samsung’s appeal of the ruling in favor of Apple on October 11th.

Apple previously asked the Supreme Court not to take on Samsung’s appeal, although the United States Department of Justice filed an amicus brief requesting the case be sent to the Supreme Court. The dispute between Samsung and Apple nearly came to a close last December when the two companies agreed to a $548M settlement, but Samsung requested an appeal of the ruling while arguing that the lower courts misapplied the design patents held by Apple. As you may recall, this dates back to Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones borrowing the look and feel of early iPhones.

Unclear if designers were consulted on font choice

You can read the full amicus brief here. Other notable signatures aside from the designers mentioned above include Raymond Riley of Microsoft, Nicolas Ghesquiere of Louis Vuitton, and several educations or designers.