Samsung Electronics confirmed in a court filing late Friday that Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) could potentially wind up receiving more in damages in a new patent-infringement trial than the $1.05 billion it was originally awarded last August.
"Apple can seek even more damages on these products in the new trial," Samsung acknowledged in a filing, first spotted by Florian Mueller of the Foss Patents blog. Mueller pointed out that this possibility actually came to light roughly a month ago when the judge who oversaw the $1.05 billion blockbuster patent infringement case between Apple and Samsung slashed the damages in the case by $450.5 million and ordered a new trial.
In theory, a new jury in a new trial could give Apple more damages than the $1.05 billion it originally won, less or an identical amount. Mueller wrote that there was always a possibility that Apple could get more in damages, but that this fact was not noted by many.
"The focus of most reports and comments has been on what Apple presumably 'lost,'" he wrote. "Samsung certainly wanted to vacate as large a portion of the damages award as possible, and getting $450 million vacated is no small achievement--but it would be foolish to think (or at least ignorant of the damages claim Apple was actually allowed to present last year) that the only way is down at this stage."
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh reduced the jury's damage award by 43 percent, bringing it down to $598.9 million. To reduce the damages Koh removed certain devices from the order. In addition, Koh ordered a new trial to decide how much Apple should be paid for the devices that she cut from the damages.
In reviewing the jury's decision in the case decided last August, Koh found that the jury made an acceptable ruling in deciding that Samsung had infringed on Apple's patents. However, she wrote that the jury made two key errors in deciding the damages. Koh wrote that the jury erred in using Samsung's profits to decide how much money Samsung owed Apple for infringing on Apple's utility patents; she said profits should only be used when evaluating design patents. Koh also wrote that the jury was incorrect in deciding the time period Apple should be awarded damages for.
For more:
- see this Foss Patents post
- see this Fortune article
- see this Apple Insider post
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