More than a hundred design industry professionals have come out in favour of Apple, as Samsung appeals to the US Supreme Court over the $548 million it had to pay for copying Apple’s iPhone design.

The original payment was made in 2012, after a court case found Samsung had copied the rounded-corner front face, bezel and grid of icons iPhone design. Samsung are currently in the process of appealing this “excessive” cost, prompting a large group of design professionals, including those from Calvin Klein, the Parsons School of Design and Bentley, to sign a court brief supporting Apple.

In the note, they argued that the product’s distinctive look is what drives people to purchase the iPhone, with the “look of the product comes to represent the underlying features, functions, and total user experience.”

This is the latest in a long-standing rivalry between the two electronics companies, with Samsung bosses making a dig at the design of Apple’s new iPhone at the unveiling of the Samsung Note 7 launch this week in New York. Samsung’s SVP of product strategy, Justin Denison, made a reference to Apple’s rumoured lack of headphone jack, saying: “Do you know what else it comes with? An audio jack, just saying.”

04/08/2016