The Apple vs Samsung lawsuit settlement that had Samsung paying more than $1 billion for patent infringement has been halved by the case's federal judge today.
The reason for the reduced settlement is that the August jury awarded damages improperly and excessively for the Samsung devices that infringed upon Apple's patents, according to Northern District of California Judge Lucy Koh.
As software patent blog Foss Patents explained, "the jury set only one damages figure per product, but half a dozen different intellectual property rights were found infringed."
The 14 infringing Samsung devices are the Galaxy S2, Galaxy Prevail, Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Tab, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, and Transform.
This leaves Apple with about $598.9 million from the $1.05 billion in damages the jury had originally awarded the company.
Apple vs Samsung retrial
In addition to halving the Apple vs Samsung settlement , Judge Koh ordered a new trial to sort out the improperly calculated damages.
Samsung has been pressing for a retrial to reduce the settlement , while Apple has been urging for $121 million in supplemental damages. A retrial may give one company its wish.
The case also has the potential to move Washington D.C. to the U.S. Federal Circuit Court of Appeals, which handles patent appeals, surmises the Mercury News' Howard Mintz, covering on the legal affairs beat.
There's also a second Apple vs Samsung legal battle going on over Samsung's newest phones, and Siri is front and center of that spring 2014 case.
Judge Koh, however, wants the two warring companies to go one lawsuit at a time, urging Apple and Samsung to finish the appeals process before moving onto this new court case.
