Apple and Samsung set for Supreme Court battle in US

Tech rivals Apple and Samsung will face off in a $399m patent case in the US Supreme Court on Tuesday in what will be a landmark case for smartphone makers.

The maker of the iPhone and Galaxy models have been engaged in a constant tit-for-tat legal battle over copyright infringements for the last six years, costing both companies millions of dollars in fees.

The case surrounds how much of a $399m award that the South Korean company must pay to Apple for alleged copying of its iPhone.

Samsung described the award as "disproportionate", whereas Apple have said that it is a fair sum considering the "blatant copying" of its flagship product.

It has been widely accepted that Samsung infringed on Apple's intellectual property, but Tuesday's case will judge the extent to which they were at fault and how much they should pay.

Both Apple and Samsung are currently dealing with legal concerns of their own. The US company are engaged in a disagreement with the European Commission which has demanded it pays $15bn in taxes to the Irish state, while Samsung continues to struggle with production issues over its Galaxy Note 7 device.

The infringement specifically focuses on a number of features of the iPhone's design, including its black rectangle shape with rounded corners, the raised frame, and the layout of apps on the screen.