By Kim Yoo-chul
Samsung Electronics has vowed to appeal after a U.S. court slashed nearly half of the $1 billion penalty against the company in its patent fight with Apple, saying it seeks a complete dismissal of the patent dispute case
``Samsung will appeal as we still believe some $600 million that federal judge Koh ordered us to pay is too much. We are still seeking a complete dismissal of the case in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit,’’ a senior Samsung executive told The Korea Times by telephone Sunday.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh on Saturday lowered the damages awarded to Apple over 14 Samsung products, including products in its hot-selling Galaxy lineup, by $450.5 million, saying jurors did not properly follow her instructions in calculating the damages.
She also concluded that mistakes had been made in determining when Apple first notified Samsung about its alleged violations of patents for Apple’s trend-setting iPhone and iPad.
''The court has identified an impermissible legal theory on which the jury based its award and cannot reasonably calculate the amount of excess while effectuating the intent of the jury,’’ she said in her final ruling, ordering the two companies to begin a second trial over 14 of 28 products at issue.
"When a court detects an error in the jury's damages verdict, the court has two choices: The court may order a new trial on damages, or the court may reduce the award to a supportable amount," Koh wrote in her order. She did both.
The new trial to recalculate the damages could also increase the award but Samsung officials said they don’t care about that too much.
Samsung’s $600 million payment to Apple is just 10 percent from its handset division’s entire operating profit last year of 5.6 trillion won.
“We welcomed Koh’s final ruling. In an appeals court, Samsung will try hard to persuade new jurors that even the other 14 products didn’t infringe on Apple patents,’’ said another Samsung executive by telephone, late Saturday.
The Cupertino-based Apple is also expected to appeal the latest ruling, according to patent experts and industry sources, meaning the two biggest players in the smartphone market will have to endure another bruising trial.
Apple had asked Samsung to pay a total of $2.7 billion over the latter’s willful infringement of the former’s patents.
Florian Mueller, who runs the influential Foss Patents blog, sided with the judge on why a new trial would be necessary.
“The $450 million amount corresponds to 14 Samsung products, with respect to which a new damages trial must be held because the court cannot make the adjustments it deems necessary for legal reasons,’’ Mueller wrote on his blog.
''The jury set only one damages figure per product, but half a dozen different intellectual property rights were found infringed, resulting in a lack of clarity as to what portion of a per-product damages figure is attributable to a given intellectual property right.’’
The Samsung executive said the firm’s lawyers are now paying more attention to whether the California-based Apple will win a complete U.S. import ban on Samsung devices from the United States International Trade Commission (ITC).
The final ruling from the quasi-judicial federal agency is due on Aug. 1.
``Our next plan will be updated after Aug. 1. So far, it is very unlikely Samsung will go into an action to sign a peace treaty with Apple. That is a possibility but we don’t have to rush,’’ said the executive.
Mentioning Samsung’s latest move to open a new lobbying office in Washington D.C., he said its physical proximity to Capitol Hill will help Samsung ramp up its lobbying efforts and protect the company’s share of the smartphone market with the support of U.S. lawmakers.