In the ongoing legal battle between Apple and Samsung, the latest blow from Judge Lucy Koh has landed squarely on Apple this time. Judge Koh released a ruling today that has at least temporarily reduced the original $1.05 billion award to almost $599 million. Judge Koh’s ruling indicates “the Court identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award.” Koh has ordered a new trial relative to determining the correct amount due in place of the amounts she disallowed.
Koh indicated in her latest ruling that there were two main errors related to the calculation of damages. First, the jury based damages for infringement of utility patents on Samsung’s sales. This method is only used when design patents are infringed, not utility patents. The second error involved the time frame for calculating the award. The jury used a date of August 24, 2010 based on a meeting held that day between Samsung and Apple when Apple informed Samsung that they thought they were infringing Apple’s ’381 “scrollback” patent. However, a full list of all intellectual property Apple believed was being infringed upon was not provided until April 15, 2011 when Apple filed their complaint. The issue was muddied just a bit more when Apple added additional devices to their list on June 16, 2011. The jury should have only awarded damages for sales that occurred after Apple had informed Samsung of the specific violations it was claiming existed.
Samsung had asked Koh to calculate new damages herself based on these errors. However, she declined to do so citing an inability to determine the jury’s intent and process in assessing damages. Koh has suggested to the two sides that they wait for the appeals process related to the rulings of infringement to complete before filing for the new trial on damages. Koh also agreed with Apple that Samsung had sold some devices after the end of the trial that should be included in the damages calculations. It is unclear whether Apple will be able to win damages anywhere close to the original $450 million wiped out by this latest ruling.
Anyone need to refill their popcorn?
source: The Verge
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