Judge Cuts Award, Orders New Trial in Apple v. Samsung Case

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The Apple v. Samsung patent lawsuit shows no signs of drawing to a close anytime soon. On Friday, Judge Lucy Koh set aside $450 million of the $1.05 billion that a U.S. jury awarded to Apple and has ordered a new trial related to the products covered by that $450 million.

InformationWeek’s Charles Babcock reported, “The $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung Electronics for infringing on six Apple smartphone patents was reduced last week by 43% by U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, due to what she called the jury’s invocation of an erroneous calculation. The $1.05 billion judgment arrived at last August in San Jose was reduced by Judge Koh on Friday by $450.5 million, and she set a new trial to determine the damages.”

All Things D quoted the judge’s ruling, which read, “Because the Court has identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award, and cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess while effectuating the intent of the jury, the Court hereby orders a new trial on damages for the following products: Galaxy Prevail, Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Galaxy SII AT&T, Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, and Transform.”

CBR quoted Samsung spokesman Nam Ki Yung, who said, “We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury’s award. Samsung intends to seek further review as to the remaining award.”

The Guardian’s Charles Arthur observed, “Her decision does not overrule the jury’s decision in the original trial; the new jury will only decide the size of damages to be paid over 14 other products that were found to infringe Apple’s patents on design or use, or both. That is almost certain to up the damages from the new level Koh suggested – though it’s unclear whether it would raise it to the same level as before, or more, or less. Apple will also be entitled to interest on the total damages at the US Treasury bill rate (of just 0.16%) for the period between the verdict and the final judgement, and supplemental damages based on sales of infringing Samsung devices since the verdict. Samsung says only three of the devices from the trial are still on sale.”