07-08-2015, 08:12 PM
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.
