Judge cuts Apple’s $1-billion Samsung judgment by almost half

A judge on Friday cut $450.5 million from the $1-billion judgment Apple won in a patent infringement case against Samsung last summer.

U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh in San Jose said she trimmed the award because of what appears to be a technical error in the jury’s methodology used to calculate the damages Samsung owed relating to 14 products.

Koh ordered a new jury trial to determine the damages related to those products, which could theoretically result in the $450.5 million portion of the verdict being increased or decreased.

“We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury’s award,” Samsung said in a statement. “Samsung intends to seek further review as to the remaining award. We are also pleased that the court earlier found that Samsung had not acted willfully, denied Apple’s request for a permanent injunction, and denied Apple’s motion for increased damages.”

Separately, Koh said she would delay ruling on Apple’s request that the original $1-billion judgment be increased by another $500 million. Koh said it would be better to wait until both parties finished their appeals of the original verdict before calculating any additional damages due to Apple.

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The rulings are the latest twist in the global litigation war between Apple and Samsung. The case at issue covers a series of older Samsung products that Apple says violated its intellectual property. A second lawsuit is pending before Koh in which Apple makes similar claims against Samsung’s more recent smartphones and tablets.

While not an outright loss for Apple, the ruling is not the best news for a company that’s been on bit of legal losing streak.

Last month, Apple lost a ruling in a legal squabble with a shareholder who wanted to block a vote on a controversial measure at the company’s annual shareholder meeting. Separately, Apple also agreed to pay $100 million to settle a lawsuit over claims that its iPhone and iPad apps allowed children to make purchases from online vendors without their parent’s knowledge or consent.

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