Judge slashes Samsung damages to Apple by US$450 million
New trial possible after US$450m slashed from jury's award in patent infringement case
A judge on Friday cut US$450 million from a US$1 billion award to be paid by Samsung in a landmark patent lawsuit from Apple, saying a jury had wrongly calculated the damages.
US District Judge Lucy Koh affirmed the remainder of the award, amounting to US$598.9 million, in the patent infringement case, while denying Apple's request for a bigger penalty.
The decision marked the latest twist in the blockbuster trial pitting the maker of the iPhone against the surging South Korean electronics giant.
Apple had accused its rival of massive and wilful copying of its designs and technology for smartphones and tablets.
But Koh said the jury erred in calculating damages for some of the devices in question, including some models of the Galaxy SII smartphone and Galaxy Tab tablet, and struck down as invalid the US$450 million awarded to the Silicon Valley giant.
She ruled that a new trial would be needed to award damages for those items, because an "impermissible legal theory" the jury used to calculate the award means that she "cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess while effectuating the intent of the jury".