Judge vacates 40% of jury's $1.05B verdict in Apple v. Samsung [u]

By Kevin Bostic

Judge Lucy Koh on Friday vacated more than 40 percent of the $1.05 billion in damages a jury awarded to Apple in its patent infringement case against chief rival Samsung.

Update: A complete list of devices affected by Friday's order have been included below.

Vanessa Blum, federal courts reporter for The Recorder in San Francisco tweeted on Friday that Judge Koh had struck roughly $450 million off the damage award Apple won in its case against Samsung. Koh has reportedly ordered a new trial for the $450 million.

Apple won the award in a sweeping victory at the end of a hotly contested trial. After just 22 hours of deliberation, the jury returned a verdict finding Samsung guilty of infringement on all but one of Apple's asserted patents. Apple had asked for roughly $2.5 billion in damages.

Apple, the jury found, had not violated any of the South Korean conglomerate's patents.

In the initial ruling, Samsung had been found to be willful in its infringement, which held the possibility of a tripling of the $1.05 billion award.

Apple had tried to sway Koh toward moving the damages award closer to its initial goal of $2.5 billion. According to Bloomberg, Koh rejected Apple's request for a bigger reward, saying that the amount Samsung owed was under dispute and the jury was under no obligation to side with either party's damage estimate.

"It is not the proper role of the court to second-guess the jury's factual determination as to the proper amount of compensation," Koh said, commenting on the ruling.

According to FOSS Patents, Judge Koh's order to vacate $450,514,650 from the judgment covers 14 Samsung products due to uncertainty over what amount of damages are attributable to an individual intellectual property right:

"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..."

Judge Koh has not yet set a date for a second damages trial. When it is held, it may result in a higher or lower damages award for the 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. The case will also require a different jury from the one that reached August's verdict.

Roughly $600 million of the initial verdict still stands.

Damages vacated for following Samsung products:

Damages remain for the following Samsung products:

Apple v. Samsung - Order Re Damages by slburstein