Apple’s Patent Judgment Against Samsung Sliced By Almost Half
by Brent Dirks
March 1, 2013
The more than $1 billion in damages awarded to Apple in the patent suit against Samsung last year has been cut almost in half by the presiding judge in the case.
Along with reducing the damages awarded by the jury to $598.9 million, Judge Lucy Koh ordered a new trial on infringement claims leveled against 14 Samsung devices like the Galaxy Prevail and other smartphones.
According to FOSS Patents, Koh vacated the monetary award and ordered a new trial because she agreed with Samsung's lawyers that the jury incorrectly tallied some of its damage awards:
The jury set only one damages figure per product, but half a dozen different intellectual property rights were found infringed, resulting in a lack of clarity as to what portion of a per-product damages figure is attributable to a given intellectual property right.Whenever a new trial occurs, which could be quite some time because of appeals court proceedings, a new jury will debate whether the 14 products in question infringed on Apple’s patents, and whether any monetary damages could be awarded. So that could be higher or lower than the $450.5 million amount that was vacated today. The jury in the trial, which occurred last summer, deliberated for around 22 hours before coming to an agreement, which was considered a major victory for Apple in its patent war against frenemy Samsung.
