SAN FRANCISCO — When Samsung Electronics Co. appealed the $930 million in damages awarded to Apple Inc. in the “trial of the century” over smartphone design, it had help from 27 law professor amici curiae who argued that the law of design patent damages “makes no sense in the modern world.”

This week Apple fired back, bolstering its answer brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit with citations to law review articles from six of the same professors.