Half of the $1 billion Awarded to Apple from Samsung Electronics Invalidated by Judge.
Nearly half of the $1 billion in damages awarded to Apple in the high profile patents trial it pursued against Samsung last year, has been invalidated by a judge according to Associated Press.
U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh has ruled that since jurors had not properly followed her instructions in calculating some of the damages, the amount awarded to Apple will be decreased by $450.5 million. This would reduce the amount Samsung Electronics now has to pay to just under $599 million. The Judge has also ordered that a new trial be set up on Apple's allegations that Samsung stole its ideas for more than a dozen different smartphones and tablet computers.
Last year, a jury had decided in favour of Apple Inc. and Samsung was ordered to pay $1.05 billion for stealing innovative technology used by Apple to create its revolutionary iPhone and iPad. Some of the ideas alleged by Apple to be illegally used by Samsung include the ‘Bounce back” feature which causes images to bounce back when a user reaches the end of a gallery, and the ability to zoom text with the tap of a finger. On their end, Samsung had mounted a post-trial attack on the verdict, claiming an unfair trial in a coutroom that was just a few miles away from Apple’s head-quarters, that some of Apple’s patents were not valid in the first place, and mistakes in calculating the damage award.
The case is ultimately expected to land before the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, the Washington-based court that decides patent disputes, and possibly the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, a very interesting side effect of this new development in the patent trial, is that stock market shares of Samsung have gone up since this news became public. According to Reuters “shares in Samsung Electronics Co. rose 1.1 percent on Monday after a U.S. judge almost halved the $1.05 billion jury award Apple Inc had won,” and that “shares in Samsung were trading 0.7 percent higher minutes after the market opened.”
I just hope that while Apple and Samsung are busy trying to claw each other down, a third competitor doesn’t sneak up on them. Mainly Nokia, Sony or .…take your pick!
