It's a sad day for Apple and its lawyers, now that The Verge reports that Cupertino judge Lucy Koh cut damages awarded from the nasty Apple vs. Samsung legal battle to just $598 million. The original award of $1.049 billion, handed down in August of last year, was slashed due to the fact that "the Court identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award," according to Koh.
Photo Courtesy Adam Fagen
The Verge notes that two factors that affected the way the jury ultimately calculated the damages invalidated the earlier reward. First, the the jury used Samsung's profits to measure against infringement of Apple's utility patents, which is a practice reserved for when design patents are violated. Second, the judge ruled that the jury used the improper length of time for the damages — the eligible time period could only be for sales occurred after Apple notified Samsung that they were infringing on patents. While Apple argued that they had sufficiently notified Samsung about the copyright infringements in 2010, the company had only alerted to violations only a single patent (the "scrollback" motion) and continued to add new devices after the extended violations list was formally made in 2011.
Samung won its motion for a retrial on the damages, including the amount Koh cut from the award, but the judge instructed that the two companies go through the appeals process before heading headlong back into court for another sparring session. The damages are related to 14 different Samsung devices that have since been pulled from shelves, including AT&T's model of the Samsung Galaxy S II.
What do you think of the battle between Apple and Samsung? Let us know in the comments.
Lauren Hockenson is a tech reporter and 8-bit enthusiast who dreams of being a wizard. She can be found on MyIGN at lhockenson or on Twitter at @lhockenson.
Source : ign[dot]com
No comments:
Post a Comment