New Damages Trial Ordered on $399 Million Design Patent Award

Following remand of a $399 million jury award, the court ordered a new trial on design patent damages because its original jury instructions caused prejudicial error. "[A] properly instructed jury may have found that the relevant article of manufacture for each of the design patents was something less than the entire phone. [Plaintiff's] argument that [defendant's] failure to actually identify a smaller article of manufacture at trial would have precluded the jury from finding any article of manufacture other than the entire phone is not persuasive. Had the Court agreed to give some version of Proposed Jury Instruction 42.1, [defendant] could have identified a smaller article of manufacture in its closing argument."

Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., et al, 5-11-cv-01846 (CAND October 22, 2017, Order) (Koh, USDJ)