A US judge has reduced by nearly half the $1.05 billion damages bill Samsung had been ordered to pay Apple following their high-profile patent trial.
Judge Lucy Koh has shaved $450.5 million from the damages after finding that jurors had not followed her instructions while calculating the figure, Associated Press reported.
Koh also ordered a new trial to reconsider damages, but only to recalculate the sum – not to re-examine whether patents had been infringed.
Apple's and Samsung's various appeals may also affect the total, and Samsung is seeking to have the verdict overturned and the case dismissed.
For Apple, the decision is another setback for its legal assault on Samsung, following repeated rebuffed attempts to secure a sales injunction on devices found to infringe during the trial.
In separate Apple legal news, activist investor David Einhorn has withdrawn the lawsuit filed by his hedge fund, Greenlight Capital, seeking to block a shareholder vote on a proposal to have investors decide on his plan to have Apple share more of his cash pile.
The plan, dubbed iPrefs, would involve Apple issuing “permanent preferred” stock to existing investors, which would pay an annual dividend in perpetuity. The shareholder proposal would have put the decision in the hands of shareholders.
Greenlight said it withdrew the lawsuit after Apple withdrew the bundled proposal it was objecting to, Reuters reported, rendering the suit unnecessary.
Finally, Apple has asked a US judge to approve the terms of a potentially multimillion settlement to a class-action lawsuit filed by consumers over in-app purchases made by children in mobile games without their parents' consent.
Apple will today submit the terms of the agreement - which involves giving at least $5 in iTunes credit to class-action members or optionally cash if the claimed sum is $30 or higher – for review by the federal judge overseeing the case, Bloombergreported.