Judge slashes $450m from award given to Apple in Samsung patent battle

Apple and Samsung are to enter a new jury trial after it was revealed that the $1.05bn (£698m) award given to Apple in the US courts last August was miscalculated.

Judge Lucy Koh (pictured), who ruled on the case last year, has removed $450m (£298m) from the verdict and ordered a new trial for a jury to determine how much Samsung should pay Apple in damages.

The damages related to 14 Samsung products including its popular Galaxy range, as the jury decided that some of these products had copied the appearance of Apple's iPhone. Other disputes related to "utility" patents such as a rubber-banding patent and tap-to-zoom. Samsung has since claimed that it and Google - who provides the Android platform - had already developed workarounds for each of these patents.

The South Korean firm also attempted to get the entire decision overturned, but Koh refused, even though Samsung claimed that the jury foreman Velvin Hogan was biased.

Samsung also claimed that even if the decision of the original case was upheld, the damages awarded were excessive because they had been bumped up with a calculation for damages that did not apply to "utility" patents.

Apple, meanwhile, demanded further recompense of $121m (£80m) from Samsung in "supplemental damages" to adjust for sales and other numbers not disclosed at the original trial.

It is unclear who will benefit from Koh's latest decision, which she said was taken because jurors in the trial had not followed her instructions in calculating some of the damages.

It leaves Samsung owing Apple about $599m (£397.5m) but the jury's calculations could escalate this further, perhaps even above the $1.05bn that it was originally made to pay Apple.

"We are pleased that the court decided to strike $450,514,650 from the jury's award," Samsung said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Apple is still arguing for an injunction to stop infringing Samsung products from being sold in the US.

The firms who are embroiled in a battle in the smartphone market have had a tumultuous relationship in which they have had legal wranglings in the South Korean, Japanese, German, Dutch, Australian, Italian, French and British courts.