Just to share a quick news to you guys. According to EE Times, a U.S. federal judge, Lucy Koh, cut the $1.05 billion award Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. had been ordered to pay Apple Inc. by more than 40 percent today. It means Samsung now has reduced the payment to Apple to around $599 million.
Judge Lucy Koh of the U.S. District Court Northern District of California in San Jose also denied a request by Apple to increase the damage award. "Because 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, the court hereby orders a new trial on damages," Koh wrote in a 27-page opinion.
Note that last year Apple had been actively seeking as much as $2.71 billion in damages in charging patent infringement of Samsung over multiple patents. Apple scored a significant legal victory when the jury ruled that Samsung must pay Apple $1.05 billion plus a verdict of willful infringement on many counts. It is interesting to see even Apple got its full victory on court, the actual damage to Samsung is actually not immediate. It shows that patents legal cases require a long period of time to process, and it takes a serious degree of infringement to cause immediate impact to companies which infringe other's patents.
http://www.eetimes.com/design/microwave-rf-design/4408121/Samsung-s-damage-payments-to-Apple-slashed
I think Samsung still has to pay a lot of money to Apple, but I'm sure that this ruling is a very big deal for both of the companies. I wonder what the next battle between these two companies will look like.
ReplyDelete$599 billion is still a tonnnn of money. It's hard to believe that Apple is scoring this much, especially considering it's already been reduced. It will be interesting to see more shenanigans between these guys develop.
ReplyDeleteHaha, my bad Lanssie. It's just $599 million. But sure it still hurt Samsung since it's around 6% of its smartphone revenue (it has around $8 billion revenue in smartphone sale). But I am sure the damage is way less than Apple is hoping for.
DeleteI think it's interesting that this trial occurred in Northern California, in San Jose, which has a very technology-familiar population. I think that this familiarity with the technology led to the lessened damages award, as the judge most likely saw that the damages should have been much less than initially thought. I'm curious as to what the damages amount might have been if the case had been tried in the eastern district of Texas or in Delaware, where NPEs have traditionally been able to win greater damages.
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