With the unexpected death of Justice Antonin Scalia, the United States Supreme Court now faces a potentially monumental change to its composition. This won’t just have major future consequences. In the here-and-now, the Court — even a justice short — has many critical cases that stand to solidify public policy and establish precedent that could affect the majority of Americans.
One of the most publicized cases the Court is considering to review is the patent battle between Samsung and Apple, which will have far-reaching consequences for technology, innovation and Americans’ Internet access.
In December 2015, Samsung filed a petition for the Supreme Court to review a ruling in its long-running legal battle with Apple. The petition relates to design patents infringement and remedies. Current legal interpretations elevate design patents and ornamental features of a product over utility patents and a product’s functionality. Additionally, the court-awarded dollar remedies for infringement could be equal to the total profits earned from the alleged infringing product.
This case is a major development in intellectual property law and carries potentially serious implications for rural connectivity, which is why the National Grange urges the Supreme Court to review it.
According to a December 2015 Pew Research Center survey, the manner in which Americans connect to the Internet is undergoing a categorical shift. The survey found that home broadband adoption in the U.S has plateaued. Increasingly, adults are “mobile only,” meaning they use over-the-air, cellular data service plans for their smartphone or other portable devices for their primary access to the Internet, instead of Wi-Fi or hard wired broadband service at home or work.
The trend is especially pronounced in rural communities, where mobile-only use rose from 9 to 15 percent between 2013 and 2015. The survey indicates that 40 percent of non-broadband households cite high costs of separate, standalone internet services as a reason why they don’t have home broadband. Both the monthly cost of a broadband subscription and the cost of a computer often pose significant barriers to access for lower-income Americans.
Samsung’s appeal questions the appropriateness of remedies for design patent infringement. A Supreme Court reversal would prevent a rise in costs and a reduction of access to cellular in rural communities. But first, the Supreme Court must agree to review the case.
This cause is especially critical to America’s farmers, as their current generation is in the process of retiring and a new generation of family farmers, who have grown up familiar with these technologies, is moving to take their place in providing us with the most abundant and safest food supply in the world. To that end, the National Grange submitted an amicus brief in support of Samsung. We are deeply concerned that the outcome of this case could profoundly and adversely affect the rural, farming and remote tribal communities that we represent.
Mobile devices provide access to educational resources, health information and direct business-to-customer markets for goods or service as well as employment opportunities. Mobile technology is revolutionizing the manner in which farmers conduct business, allowing farmers to tap into sources on agricultural information, utilize cutting-edge production technologies, undertake entrepreneurial endeavors, reach new customers and run their businesses in ways previously thought impossible.
The lower court’s ruling, if upheld, will make it tougher for rural entrepreneurs to prosper because it will make access more expensive. Without Supreme Court review, design patents could be wielded as potent weapons, enabling their holders to extort their competition with the threat of massive damages. These threats are likely to harm many small businesses, making it harder for them to compete in a wide swath of industries, from high-tech consumer electronics to heavy farming equipment.
Excessive design patent damages like those imposed on Samsung would make rural consumers particularly vulnerable to trolling threats from design-patent abusers. The stakes are also much higher for family-owned rural small businesses because jobs, opportunities and progress for these often marginalized communities all rely on their success.
Rural America and the agricultural industry rely on mobile access even more than the majority of other Americans to leapfrog forward as dynamic economic participants in the 21st Century. Even amid the recent structural uncertainty, the Supreme Court must review this important case in order to safeguard rural access to mobile devices, while protecting costs and the decades of progress our nation has made to enhance connectivity.
Leroy A. Watson is a member of the board of directors of The National Grange, the nation’s oldest general farm and rural public interest organization with more than 2000 affiliated local, county and state Grange chapters across the United States. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
