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The judge in last year's landmark Apple-Samsung patent case today cut damages on some Samsung products found to infringe Apple's patents, carving $450.5 million off the original $1.05 billion judgment and calling for a new trial on the damages to recalculate them.
"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," Judge Lucy Koh, of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, said in an afternoon ruling.
The products in question include 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 Prevail in particular racked up $57.9 million of the damages tally, which Koh said was a failure on the jury's part, since the device was found to infringe only on utility patents, and not on design patents.
"We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury's award," Samsung said in an e-mailed statement. "Samsung intends to seek further review as to the remaining award."
Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
As part of a verdict in August, a California jury said 26 of Samsung's mobile devices infringed on a handful of Apple's patents, leading to the $1.05 billion damages award in Apple's favor. Following the decision, Apple filed for an injunction against a number of the infringing products, attempting to keep them off store shelves, though Koh rebuffed the effort, saying most of those devices were already no longer in stores.
Samsung products involved in rethink of damages (pictures) 1-2 of 14Scroll LeftScroll Right
In her order today, Koh said she would hold off on evaluating evidence pertaining to postverdict sales, as well as interest accrued before the judgment, until appeals in the case wrapped up.
It remains unclear from the ruling when a new trial for the 14 products in question would be held. The two companies are slated to meet once again in court next year over a separate group of patents and products from both companies, including the iPhone 5 and the Galaxy SIII.
The full ruling is embedded below:
Apple v. Samsung Damages byCNET's Paul Sloan contributed to this report.
Update, 2:54 pm PT:Adds minor changes throughout, for clarity, and once again at 3:25 p.m. PT with comment from Samsung.
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