Judge Lucy Koh has reduced nearly in half the $1 billion in damages that was awarded to Apple in its patent lawsuit against Samsung last August. Judge Koh also is calling for a new trial to set revised damage amounts for the affected portions of the judgment.
FOSS Patents, via MacRumors:
The $440 million amount [struck from the damage award] corresponds to 14 Samsung products, with respect to which a new damages trial must be held because the court cannot make the adjustments it deems necessary for legal reasons: 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.
Judge Koh agreed with Samsung lawyers, who had argued that the jury had erred in portions of its damage calculated for the 14 Samsung product affected. A new trial must now be held to determine proper damages for those devices.
Apple will remain entitled to the nearly $600 million in damages that remain in the original judgement, along with whatever new damages a new jury comes up with for the 14 devices included in a retrial, plus interest. Apple has also been seeking supplemental damages which still have yet to be determined.
The new trial will likely not be heard until all appeals of the original ruling have played out. This means it is likely to be some time before the revised damages are decided.
