Jury holds line on damages in Apple case
Jurors have held the line on its $US119.6 million ($A129.4 million) damages award to Apple in its latest patent battle with smartphone rival Samsung in Silicon Valley.
Jury members who had been asked by the judge to fill in a missing royalty amount due to Apple for a Samsung smartphone found to infringe did so, while adjusting downward some other figures to leave the overall award about the same as declared on Friday, when the verdict was announced.
"The jury appeared to have added another $US4 million to the damages award, but then it turned out that it moved some numbers between products, so the total stayed below $US120 million," patent analyst Florian Mueller said in a post online at FossPatents.com.
The amount of money that Samsung is ordered to pay California-based Apple could "easily be reduced on appeal", Mueller added.
While the amount of the award is huge, it is only a fraction of the more than $US2 billion Apple had sought at the outset of the trial against is South Korean competitor in the hot smartphone and tablet computer market.
"We agree with the jury's decision to reject Apple's grossly exaggerated damages claim," Samsung said in a statement on Monday.
"Although we are disappointed by the finding of infringement, we are vindicated that for the second time in the US, Apple has been found to infringe Samsung's patents."
CNET reports that after the trial ended, members of the jury told the media Apple should consider a "more direct approach" and take Google to court rather than Samsung.
"I guess if you really feel that Google is something that's the cause behind this, as I think everybody observed, then don't beat around the bush," jury foreman and former IBM executive Tom Dunham said.
The jury delivered a mixed verdict in the San Jose, California, courtroom of US District Court Judge Lucy Koh on Friday.