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Judge slashes Apple's pile o' cash Samsung judgment

'Hmmm... $1bn? How 'bout, say, $600m, give or take a few bucks?'

Last August, a jury awarded Apple $1.05bn in a patent-infringement case against Samsung. On Friday, the US District Court judge who presided over that case slashed those damages by $450m.

Judge Lucy Koh found that the jury had improperly calculated the amount of damages awarded to Apple, and trimmed the total down to under $600m, reports the San Jose Mercury News. Apple, by the way, had originally asked for $2.525bn in damages from Samsung.

While $600m isn't exactly chump change, the reduction in damages is yet another slap in Cupertino's face as it tries to weaken its prime smartphone and tablet competitor through a spate of ongoing court battles.

In addition to slashing the damages, Koh ordered a new trial to examine the awards on a number of the products at issue in the earlier trial. That decision, as the Merc astutely points out, could end up moving the case to the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Washington DC – a court that has been less than friendly to Cupertino in past cases.

Apple lost its bid to expedite its appeal requesting a ban on Samsung's smartphones from the US market last month and lost when it attempted to get that court to rehear the reversal of an injunction to ban the importation of the Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US.

Apple's share price trickled further lower at the news, and as we hit Publish on this bit of news, stands at an even $430, its lowest level since January 2012. As you may recall, Apple's stock peaked at a hair over $705 per share last September. ®

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