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+--- Thread: $533M Apple patent troll award set aside (/showthread.php?tid=180953)
$533M Apple patent troll award set aside - pdq - 07-08-2015
A federal judge has thrown out a $532.9 million award against Apple Inc and ordered a new trial on damages, in a case where a jury found that the iPhone maker's iTunes software infringed three patents owned by a Texas company.
That's good, although it's hard to believe this patent-troll verdict would have survived appeal.
The odd (and troubling) thing is that it wasn't the appeals court that set it aside. It was the original East Texas judge:
In a decision on Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap in Tyler, Texas, said jurors who on Feb. 24 awarded the damages to Smartflash LLC because of Apple's willful infringement might have been confused by his instructions on how to properly calculate royalties.
Gilstrap said his jury instructions were legally correct but not applicable to the facts of the case, and "may have created a skewed damages horizon for the jury."
He set a new trial only on the issue of damages for Sept. 14 in Tyler, where Smartflash is based.
The verdict came down February 24, and was only set aside (by the same trial judge) today. WTF?
Still won't withstand appeal, whenever they finally make it that far. They oughta just close down the Tyler court - it's such a joke.
Re: $533M Apple patent troll award set aside - cbelt3 - 07-08-2015
Was this part of the brief ?
"In discussions with the plaintiff's attorneys, we agreed that my 10% of the settlement won't be enough for my new mansion, so I have set the verdict aside so the next jury can be bribed to pony up for more money. Momma wants a new Bentley."
Re: $533M Apple patent troll award set aside - Speedy - 07-08-2015
It probably took awhile for Apple's lawyers to write a reasonable decision acceptable to this judge. Judges typically don't write their own decisions, they let the winner do that. But in this case he went with the loser.
Re: $533M Apple patent troll award set aside - silvarios - 07-08-2015
Live by the sword, die by the sword. These were ridiculous software patents infringed, yes? Of course the ruling against Apple was BS, but when you push these same laws to get your own competitive advantage…meh…
Re: $533M Apple patent troll award set aside - RAMd®d - 07-09-2015
Was this part of the brief ?
Of course it was.