It’s a good thing that lawyers from both Apple and Samsung were allowed to review the jury’s verdict document after it was read, because there seem to be a few issues with it. Upon further review, there were two instances in which the jury prescribed monetary damages in Apple’s favor without actually backing up the decision.
According to Judge Lucy Koh, the jury awarded Apple nearly $220,000 in damages when it came to Samsung’s LTE-capable Galaxy Tab 10.1, but didn’t formally note any instances of patent infringement or inducement.
The other device in question was the Samsung Intercept — the jury reported that the smartphone didn’t infringe on the multi-finger navigation and tap-to-zoom utility patents but apparently thought an act infringement was induced. That position doesn’t actually make any sense, and Samsung was being asked to shell out over $2 million over this error.
Judge Koh pointed out the existence of some inconsistencies to a reassembled jury, who will now go over the document once again in order to make their findings jibe with the damages prescribed (with a red pen, no less). It seemed like a hell of a surprise that the jury managed to come up with a complete and thoughtful decision after only 21.5 hours of deliberation, and that surprise has arguably just been justified. Sure, it’s all just a drop in the bucket compared to the remaining $999 million or so that Samsung is being asked to give Apple, but you can bet Samsung’s lawyers want to avoid paying as much as possible.
UPDATE: The judge is writing a note to the jury to point out exactly what the inconsistencies are, because they couldn’t seem to tell from going over the document themselves. The past few days must’ve been really rough on them.
Judge Koh back, said there were at least two problems. One deals with Samsung Intercept on the ’163 patent. #appsung
— Christina Bonnington (@redgirlsays) August 24, 2012
