Slashdot Mirror


Apple v. Samsung Jurors Speak, Skipped Prior Art For "Bogging Us Down"

eldavojohn writes "PJ over at Groklaw has consolidated some of the more interesting juror comments made following the landmark $1 billion settlement. Apparently the foreman (a patent holder himself) took the jury through the process of how patents work and thus allowed them to return so quickly with a verdict without need of any instructions on how to work through all the material. Most sources are incredulous that all of the information was considered in the process. CNET quotes a juror as saying 'After we debated that first patent — what was prior art — because we had a hard time believing there was no prior art, that there wasn't something out there before Apple. In fact we skipped that one so we could go on faster. It was bogging us down.' While the fact that they they voted one way on infringement and another way on invalidity shows they were at least consistent, Groklaw is reporting on some odd inconsistencies in the aftermath of accounts from jurors. The appeal for something this huge goes without question but the accounts collected at Groklaw make this verdict and verdict process sound hasty, ambiguous and probably the result of one man's (the foreman's) personal opinion of patents."

117 of 506 comments (clear)

  1. judge will invalidate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I can not see the judge confirming this verdict. It was way too quick

    1. Re:judge will invalidate by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      America needs the income.

    2. Re:judge will invalidate by Sique · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's not going to America, the money will be sent to Apple. It's damages, not penalties.

      --
      .sig: Sique *sigh*
    3. Re:judge will invalidate by wizkid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I've been following the trial on groklaw and the news. This judge has less then impressed me. She did a lot of things that I question. That being said, I'm not a expert on courts and the law. But, with what I've seen, I question whether she will overturn this jury. I think it should, just on the public comments from the jury, but the whole trial sounded to me like they were railroading samsung.
      We'll see how things turn out...

      --
      I take no responsibility for what I say. Even though I'm never wrong :)
    4. Re:judge will invalidate by DragonTHC · · Score: 2

      really? The most valuable corporation in the history of the world "needs the income" ?

      Judge will definitely invalidate this one. The Jurors have already claimed they didn't deliberate properly.

      They just said, screw Samsung, we want to go home.

      --
      They're using their grammar skills there.
    5. Re:judge will invalidate by mpetch · · Score: 5, Informative

      If the jurors had read the courts instructions (which the foreman claimed they didn't need to) then it was about "damages". The court instructions made that clear "You should keep in mind that the damages you award are meant to compensate the patent holder and not to punish an infringer." The foreman told a court official that the verdict was arrived at without needing the court's instructions. However, the foreman had this to say after the trial "We wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist... We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable." So I totally agree with you when you say this was about damages and not penalties from the judge's perspective. I would say that wasn't the case from the juries perspective. To me Hogan's statement suggests that the award itself WAS punishment. I don't know how else to read his comment.

    6. Re:judge will invalidate by Shining+Celebi · · Score: 5, Interesting

      In history? I don't know. I imagine the South Sea Company or the East India Company are among the contenders. Companies like Standard Oil would also crush Apple. General Electric, Microsoft, Intel and Cisco both hit, in modern times, higher market caps than Apple.

      Here's what I got from a quick Google.
      http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/08/22/a-history-of-ridiculously-big-companies.aspx

    7. Re:judge will invalidate by mreine · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I agree. I have been a lawyer for 34 years and the Judge will most likely set the jury decision aside or invalidate it. There is obvious jury tampering and jury steering happening here. I am no fan of Google but this is utter nonsense when you include prior art.

    8. Re:judge will invalidate by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      That all sounds like stuff the judge should be deciding, not the jury. In the UK the jury is just there to decide, on a balance of probabilities, which of the two arguments is more likely. Then the level of infringement and level of damages is decided by the judge based on the jury's verdict on each individual point. The instructions given by the judge are very clear on the scope of what the jury should consider and what it should decide, and what are the key issues in making the decision. Deviation from the instructions will result in the trail and possibly the case failing.

      This whole case is about the law rather than what a jury thinks. The jury should only be weighing the evidence, nothing more.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    9. Re:judge will invalidate by RedDeadThumb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      So you grab random 20 people off the street. Throw out the 10 that seem most intelligent. And then then expect the 10 left over to figure out the cost of damages in a complex (and vague) economic situation. How is that working out?

    10. Re:judge will invalidate by Patent+Lover · · Score: 2

      Sorry, but if Samsung had prior art to invalidate Apple's patents they should have filed a Reexamination request as soon as they got sued. Putting things in front of a jury is always a crap shoot. Judges rarely overturn juries unless there is clear misconduct. Not likely here. They have a shot at getting the damages reduced.

    11. Re:judge will invalidate by Tough+Love · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Judge will definitely invalidate this one.

      Why? This judge (Lucy Koh) has acted consistently with overt bias from the word go. What do expect when the trial venue was basically down the street from Apple HQ. I understand the Cupertino police work for Apple as well.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    12. Re:judge will invalidate by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      What does google have to do with apple vs samsung?

      Eh, send us an email when you wake up.

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
    13. Re:judge will invalidate by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're a lawyer and you think there was jury tampering here? Come on. You're either not really a lawyer or you recently got hit in the head. Jury tampering is a criminal act. Who is the culprit? How was it done? Do tell.

  2. Foreman conflicted interests? by Dyinobal · · Score: 4, Interesting

    So what was this Foreman's patent in? Did he have some reason to want there to be stronger legal precedent for, software/design patents? Why did the other Jurors simply follow this mans lead? Was it group think, at its worst or were they just eager to get the hell home because the entire trial was boring and silly in their minds and the fastest way to get out of there was to slap down a billion dollar number and then call it a day?

    1. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Informative

      He's an electrical engineer. Here's his patent at the USPTO.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    2. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by ericloewe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      From what I've gathered, his interests are pretty much the same as Apple's: defending patents that are pretty obvious and have quite a bit of prior art.

    3. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by GuyRiley · · Score: 5, Interesting

      So.... this guy patented putting a wireless keyboard and SD card slot on a cable box? Wow, no wonder things shook out the way they did.

    4. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      With hindsight, perhaps, but Samsung's legal team had their chance to evict him from the jury back in July when the jury was selected, so either they missed the chance or decided that there was a greater risk of pro-Apple bias from another juror and evicted someone else instead. From what I recall of the process there were a lot of potential jurors with a potential bias towards Apple (knowing Apple employees, owning Apple hardware, etc.) and Samsung couldn't get rid of them all, just as Apple couldn't get rid of the jurors that has similar potential bias towards Android/Samsung. I think it more likely that Samsung's legal team thought that as an electrical engineer and patent holder he might have a better grasp of their case and gambled that he might tip the balance more in their favour than in Apples'. If so it was a bad call, that's all.

      --
      UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    5. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No. He invented TiVo (with some very obvious additions), three years after it started shipping.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    6. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by symbolset · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, he patented the DVR two years after the release of the TIVO. So he would know a thing or two about prior art.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    7. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by Xylantiel · · Score: 2

      Seems like it will hinge on exactly how he answered questions during the jury selection. As you say, his bias is pretty clear in hindsight due to the nature of his patent. The problem will be if he skirted this issue in jury selection questioning in order to give himself a better chance to get on the jury. I would assume Samsung's lawyers are looking at his answers very carefully. He also pretty clearly overstepped his bounds as jury foreman, and that itself may be enough for a mistrial.

    8. Re:Foreman conflicted interests? by Raenex · · Score: 2

      If there is a possiblity of conflict of interests (and with that, a bias towards the case), how could this person be chosen as juror to begin with?

      Good question, and if this article is accurate, Samsung really dropped the ball on not getting him excluded:

      "Velvin Hogan, foreman of the nine-member panel, told the court during jury selection last month that he spent seven years working with lawyers to obtain his own patent, one covering "video compression software," a hobby of his."

      How could they not see the bias he would have?

  3. Sounds like the jury foreman decided everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    and the rest of the jury just followed along like lemmings. The foreman fancied himself an expert on patents, what with his vast experience of having secured 1 patent

    What a disgrace. Unfortunately rule 606(b) of the Federal evidence code precludes using the jurors' statements in an appeal. So they can prance and prattle like jackasses, but there's not much to do about it

    Did the juror text this info to the reporter with "send from my iPhone" at the bottom?

    1. Re:Sounds like the jury foreman decided everything by Herkum01 · · Score: 2

      I don't know this might apply,

      (2) Exceptions. A juror may testify about whether: (A) extraneous prejudicial information was improperly brought to the juryâ(TM)s attention;

      It depends on what could be considered "prejudicial" or not. If he had a pre-formed opinion (which seems likely) on patents and used that to basically ignore all prior-art evidence then that is certainly prejudicial.

    2. Re:Sounds like the jury foreman decided everything by __aaltlg1547 · · Score: 5, Informative

      The way I read it is that they skipped evaluating one particular patent because they thought it was probably invalid because of prior art and didn't think it was worth their time even considering that patent, so they went on to considering other patents where they could understand the claims and the prior art situation better. I didn't see a blanket statement that they ignored prior art.

    3. Re:Sounds like the jury foreman decided everything by nedwidek · · Score: 2

      I'm not sure that he fancied himself an expert. More likely he knows just how invalid his patent is and is more interested in propping up the whole broken system.

      Seriously, how did it every get through the USPTO? That's rhetorical, I worked at IBM for too long and saw way too many of the patents that my group got.

      --
      Post anonymously - For when your opinion embarrasses even you!
  4. Could jury know trial would likely go to appeals? by sinij · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Could jury know trial would likely go to appeals? They might have known that this trial is a waste of time and not likely to get resolved prior to Supreme Court.

  5. how much per phone is 1 billion? by goombah99 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    It looks like samsung ships 20 to 45 million smart phones and tablets per quarter. If so then 1 billion is less than ten bucks per phone, possibly way less. This is not a terribly inappropriate sum or one that's going to ruin samsung. Indeed samsung would have been glad to pay a billion for the opportunity to take Nokia's market share away from them. Nokia elected to use patent indemnified Windows, they exchanged patents with apple, and Microsoft paid for patents to apple as well. Samsung got the market jump on nokia going the faster but less vetted approach of Android. They, according to their own documents, made deliberate decisions to chuck their in house designs where they differed from apples.

    Samsung is coming out handsomly since it now has Nokia's market.

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
    1. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think the effect this case will have on the broadness of design patents is more important than the actual money. (Also, I thought Nokia's market was primarily the not-quite-smart market?)

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    2. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought Nokia's market was primarily the not-quite-smart market?

      Yes, hence the decision to use a Microsoft OS.

    3. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Of course it's inappropriate when the patents aren't valid.

      Design patent for a 2000+ year old design? Apple should know better - they just tried it to see if they could get away with it.

      Stealing ideas from innovators in other fields and then patenting them with the words "on a phone" or "on a tablet" - wtf is that? again, they did it to see if they could get away with it.

      I bet there isn't a single patent that Apple has that is valid.

      Should just wipe em all away, bunch of idea thiefs. Should just take all of their assets away and distribute them amongst us, the people who's money they've been stealing for years and years.

      Fuck Apple!

    4. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      You could try actually reading his post before jumping on his math he said per QUARTER. How long ago did the galaxy come out. I can tell you it was many QUARTERS ago they have probably sold well over 100million phones since they started "infringing" these patents which is why he said "less than ten bucks per phone, possibly way less" because he was implying an unknown multiplier based on length of time this has been going on. So yes they have come out way on top. Not to mention they will probably win in appeal.

    5. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by fnj · · Score: 2

      OK, genius, so it's spread over 20 to 45 million smart phones and tablets per quarter ... times how many quarters ? Hmmm? That's 80 to 180 million units in one year. It's a one time payment offset by a continuous stream of product sold. Let's not go crazy making fun of the poster before we've thought this through for even ten seconds.

    6. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

      At least the OP is schooled in math. Are you claiming that Samsung has only been selling smartphones and tablets for 3 months? Fact is, they've been selling Android smartphones since 2010, and only 2 years (8 quarters) of sales would constitute 160 million devices, using the low end of his claimed numbers. That's well below $10 per device.

      Now, I don't know where he got those number, maybe they're worldwide and should be adjusted for just US sales, or adjusted just to the specific devices at issue, or adjusted for ramping sales, etc. But you said nothing to refute the numbers he gave.

      $10 per device might be a reasonable for licensing an OS, or a large block of necessary patents. But that's not the case here. The two utility patents were for "pinch to zoom" and "bounce back" windows, neither of which is essential to core functionality. Additionally, it appears that the jury simply skipped over considering prior art, and that perhaps the patents should have been invalidated.

      For example, the '915 patent covered "pinch to zoom," for which prior art was clearly demonstrated.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    7. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by icebraining · · Score: 4, Insightful

      You don't need to get anything from Apple; for example, owners of the Galaxy S II - not an Apple device - saw their local search feature get removed by an update due to the lawsuit.

    8. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Apple laid claim to ideas in the commons. They have stolen from us all.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    9. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by aaron552 · · Score: 3, Informative

      I thought the "pinch to zoom" patent was actually a lot more specific than that: it referred to continuing a multi-touch gesture after releasing and replacing one of the points involved within a certain duration. This was not in the "prior art" shown.

      --
      I had a sig once. It was lost in the great storm of '09.
    10. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Surely only sales in the US should be considered. Pinch to zoom is a standard feature of Android, surely Google should be the ones being sued.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    11. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by gbjbaanb · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Apparently the juror wanted to "send a message" abotu infringing patents (yeah, the guy who has a patent and is probably trying to set a precedent about getting a billion dollars for himself sometime in the future).

      Groklaw said:

      Final Jury Instruction No. 35, in part:

      The amount of those damages must be adequate to compensate the patent holder for the infringement. A damages award should put the patent holder in approximately the financial position it would have been in had the infringement not occurred, but in no event may the damages award be less than a reasonable royalty. You should keep in mind that the damages you award are meant to compensate the patent holder and not to punish an infringer.

      Mind you, if a patent like GSM radio communication sells for 1 cent per device, I can easily see why 'pinch to zoom' should sell for at least $10 per device :)

    12. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by msauve · · Score: 2

      So, the basic equivalent to making multiple strokes on a touchpad to move a mouse pointer greater distances than can be accommodated with a single stroke, possibly with the pointer acting as if it has "mass?" (so it would be acting similarly to a trackball) Multitouch required? Then same thing when resizing a window (hold left click, stroke touchpad). (

      That's an obvious, "skilled in the art" sort of thing.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    13. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by msauve · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Mind you, if a patent like GSM radio communication sells for 1 cent per device, I can easily see why 'pinch to zoom' should sell for at least $10 per device :)

      (reading that as a satirical comment) How do you figure that? Patents necessary to work with a standard protocol, such as GSM, normally fall under FRAND, so they must be licensed, and at reasonable cost.

      If one assumes Apple's patent on pinch and zoom is valid, they don't have to license it at all - at any cost. They can simply prevent others from using it. It's not needed for the functioning of a smartphone, let alone necessary to implement a standard. And, if Apple can show that they lost sales because that was a highly desirable feature, they have every right to ask for the equivalent of the profits they would have made as damages.

      But, I don't think the utility patents were valid. It seemed to me that there was prior art sufficient to make any minor refinements fall under the "obvious" dis-qualifier.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    14. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      It was a patent that was infringed, not a copyright. When it's a patent, its the one doing the selling that gets in trouble.
      If I write some software and give it away and you use that software in a way that infringes someones patent you get sued, not me.
      If everyone was a bit more sane though, everyone would see how strange this is. I effectively create the thing that violates a patent and I don't get in trouble. It's one of the problems with software patents.
      That one thing I create can also violate thousands of patents even though it doesn't actually do thousands of different things.

    15. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Zero__Kelvin · · Score: 2

      "Every court decision sets precedent."

      No. Not even close.

      --
      Guns don't kill people; Physics kills people! - John Lithgow as Dick Solomon on Third Rock From The Sun
    16. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by saleenS281 · · Score: 2

      Google doesn't sell android? That's weird because I bought a phone directly from them.

      http://www.google.com/nexus/#/

    17. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by Xeranar · · Score: 2

      Not true. They would need to prove malicious intent or serious market influence. Though usually by the time somebody is being sued they have done one or the other. If I write a duplicate app and give it away to friends and family Apple/Samsung isn't going to sue me. They will sue me if I release an infringing app on the app store/play store. It's mostly an issue of market penetration if I were giving it away.

      To put it in perspective: Samsung has sold a minimum of 150 million android devices. Paying a billion dollars is small potatoes but it opens the door for Apple to more aggressively take on Android makers to try and drive them from the market or at least squeeze a licensing deal from them. It's bad news for competition in general. Of course this decides nothing as Samsung is appealing.

    18. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by KingMotley · · Score: 2

      I hope you didn't post that from your phone, because I'm patenting "Anonymous Coward".... "on a phone"!

    19. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by symbolset · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Copying from one great artist is stealing. Copying three or more is research. And that's OK.

      But lay claim to the commons and you steal from all. It is to say "Not only do I stand on the shoulders of giants - but noone else may."

      To claw back from the public domain works owned by the public, or extend temporary rights indefinitely is the same. It is unjust. It is a violation of the social contract. We will not honor the law when it is so unjust. The attempt erodes the rule and force of law, and steals from the commons again the order and comfort general respect for the law provides.

      --
      Help stamp out iliturcy.
    20. Re:how much per phone is 1 billion? by maccodemonkey · · Score: 2

      If you could stop switching topics for three seconds, it might help. We were talking about Motorola, not android. Google is liable for Motorola, period.

      Putting in a separate management structure has exactly "0" to do with legal liability. You are pulling this out of your ass.

      It's not just a separate management structure. Motorola still legally exists as it's own entity and company. Google owns the majority of shares, but Motorola is still a separate company. You already admitted they have their own CEO, and that's because legally they are distinct.

      Motorola is a subsidiary of Google and is therefore legally distinct. It's basically a shell company which should not be a mind boggling concept, companies do this all the time to legally protect themselves.

      Except that's not what google did. Other than that, great use of wikipedia. If you took three seconds to look at a balance sheet, you'd see that google includes Motorola's assest and liabilities under it's own umbrella, because it isn't operating it as a separate corporate entity. It isn't on the stock market because it no longer operates as a separate entity:

      http://www.google.com/finance?q=MMI

      Huh? Stock market doesn't mean squat for legal standing. That just means Motorola is privately held.

      Motorola still exists as an LLC owned by Google. What is an LLC? A limited liability company. An LLC means the owners (Google) are not necessarily liable for anything the company does. LLCs do not have to be listed on the stock market (as if that was at all a reasonable argument.)

      http://www.motorola.com/us/consumers/home

      Look at the title on their homepage. They can only say "Motorola Mobility LLC. USA" if they've actually filed as an LLC in the US. Again, that does not mean they aren't owned by Google. That just means Google, to the US government, has declared that they are a separate organization and that the owner, Google, is not libable for anything they do.

      It's in the NAME OF THE COMPANY that Google isn't liable. I'm not sure how much bigger of a cluestick you need to get. Even though it's not publicly traded and privately held, it's still held as a separate company. Because they're not public, Google can put them on any balance sheet they want, but that doesn't change they're not LEGALLY part of Google.

  6. Re:phew by bmo · · Score: 5, Informative

    >Since the site is fairly anti-apple,

    PJ was pretty much rabidly pro-Apple in her assessment of Apple vs. Psystar. So much so you got called a troll if you didn't agree.

    So i'd say that your assessment of Groklaw is wrong.

    --
    BMO

  7. If it walks like a Duck... by ElitistWhiner · · Score: 2, Interesting

    This was a simple exercise of recognizing a duck and whether there were any before Apple hatched the egg first.

    Samsung whined. Jurors were listening for a quack

  8. Groklaw is too emotionally involved by sribe · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They're now taking things BADLY out of context. For instance, the quote about not needing the jury instructions, was NOT about the whole decision, it just about resolving their original 2 mistakes of including damages for phones they found non-infringing--well duh they didn't need instructions about how to fix that.

    And pay careful attention to the quote in the summary: the juror says they debated the prior art, then he says they "skipped that one". Hmm. He does not say they failed to consider prior art. He says the first one was bogging them down with the debate on prior art because they found it hard to believe there was not any. Then he says "they skipped that one", which, in context, probably means they put all questions regarding that patent aside to move on and see if the others were easier. But they did rule on it, which means they came back to it--and given their reports that debate was heated, it seems unlikely that they put it aside for a while, then came back and arbitrarily found for Apple without finishing their consideration of the evidence. It is really not reasonable to read that quote as saying the jury skipped consideration of prior art.

    Reading Groklaw's opinions of this trial has become rather like reading FOSS Patent's opinions of the Oracle/Google trial, or Enderle/Didio's opinions of the SCO trials. They've become so emotionally attached to the outcome they wanted, that everything about the trial is twisted to become part of the (imaginary) wrong that Samsung and the world are suffering at the hands of this (allegedly) rogue jury. Seriously, don't you notice that their comments disparaging the jury (who spent 3 weeks listening all day to the details of this stuff, far more than any of us will ever know about it) sound like SCO or Oracle disparaging their respective juries???

    1. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by miffo.swe · · Score: 2

      Regardless of what you think, going back on all the other cases Groklaw has been following has made people like you put to shame. Every single time they are right on the money. Ofcourse they have to be wrong some time but so far, grade A+ every single time. Ill think i wait this one out and see who is right.

      --
      HTTP/1.1 400
    2. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by recoiledsnake · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I agree with what you said, except I have to add to the last paragraph that Groklaw is pretty opinionated and biased in most of their coverage, except that people like you are noticing it this time around because Groklaw's bias is not fitting with yours. If you think they're anti-Apple in this case, you think they haven't been extremely biased all along in Microsoft related cases? But since PJ is the darling of Slashdot while MS is the borg, anyone even hinting bias in Groklaw has been called a paid shilll and shot down and modded down to the depths of hell all along. By the way, I don't believe she's paid to do what she does, but the bias is always there, except this time it is more noticeable to the Apple fans on Slashdot, many of who previously jumped on the anti-MS bandwagon that Groklaw ran and called it the best legal unbiased analysis of tech law issues around. Funny how biases and prejudices work.

      --
      This space for rent.
    3. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Informative

      Groklaw might be emotionally committed sometimes, but they are still emphasising facts, bring fact-corrections when they are wrong, and digs into actual legal document like no other journalists does, as long as they keep doing that they will continue to be a source of superior journalism on tech court cases.

    4. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by sribe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      ...but they are still emphasising facts...

      Not lately. Lately it's been misquotes, misrepresentations, and opinions. That's my problem with it. In this case, they've let their emotional involvement overwhelm good sense.

      I'd been following them for over 9 years and finally gave up and unsubscribed yesterday, not because I care so much about whether or not they agree with me on any particular case, but because it hurt too much to see quality thrown out the window like that. I know it sounds maudlin, but it really did hurt to see PJ now doing, without realizing it, what Darl/Enderle/Didio/Florian did so many times in the past--I just couldn't stand to continue.

    5. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by sribe · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Well, putting those parts aside, it does seem that a juror stated they set the damages in order to "send a message" and punish Samsung, something which is explicitly forbidden by the jury instructions. I'm not sure how that could possibly be quoted out of context.

      Quite easily: having found infringement, and having found that it was willful, the law (and jury instructions) were that damages should be the entire profit derived from the infringing devices. Samsung at various times had produce about 10 (I forget exactly, it was either 9 or 12) different analyses of their profit margins, including one, different from all others, for the admitted (under cross-examination) sole purpose of presentation to this jury. So they had in their hands estimates of Samsung's profit margins ranging from about 10% to about 35%, and they were required to find damages in the amount of the profits.

      They rejected the highest estimate (which came from Apple, not Samsung), and they rejected the lowest, and from that point it was basically a SWAG as to what the profits actually were--because of Samsung's obvious attempts to obfuscate. Given that, they did want to make sure that the number they picked was high enough to cause Samsung some actual pain.

      So there's your context that was left out. Also left out was the rest of that juror's sentence: "We felt like we were 100 percent fair..."

    6. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by sribe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Did you even read Groklaw? The quote is from CNET. Groklaw quoted CNET sufficient and made some conclusions.

      Uhm, yes, I do. The quote on CNET was complete enough, and Groklaw completely twisted it, and drew a conclusion from it that is completely unfounded. Did you read the quote? Maybe read it again, carefully this time, and identify exactly the part that says the jury decided not to consider prior art in their decision. (Hint: it says no such thing!)

    7. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by salesgeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I know it sounds maudlin, but it really did hurt to see PJ now doing, without realizing it, what Darl/Enderle/Didio/Florian did so many times in the past--I just couldn't stand to continue.

      Nah, it just sounds looney because what you say is happening is not happening.

      --
      -- $G
    8. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by RazorSharp · · Score: 2

      I think the biggest difference between this case and SCO is that SCO was clearly in the wrong. They were clearly a puppet company of Microsoft and they were clearly attempting to abuse the patent system. When harsh criticism is obviously due it's hard to call that 'bias.' SCO was both legally and morally in the wrong and no amount of obfuscation could hide that.

      With this case, it's pretty unclear as to who was legally in the right and it's definitely unclear as to whether either side had a moral high ground. So when people like PJ reported on it in a way that implied that one side did have both the legal and moral high ground, it screamed bias. Opposing SCO was a pretty objective side to take.

      Maybe that's just my own bias talking, but if I was a juror on the SCO case I know exactly how I would rule and I wouldn't think twice about it. With the Apple/Samsung case, I would have a tough time arriving at a conclusion and even then I don't know how comfortable I would be about it. On the one hand it seems pretty obvious that the iPhone was Samsung's prototype. On the other hand, many of Apple's patents are overly broad (I thought Apple had a stronger copyright case than patent case because of the icons).

      --
      "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
    9. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by plankrwf · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I see things differently.
      Yes, everybody has opinions. You have them. PJ has them. I have them. If you agreed to 'everything' on Groklaw, you might actually share many of my opinions, although perhaps not all (not everything I care about is discussed on Groklaw).

      The 'consensus' on Groklaw seems to be that claiming (software) patents are a 'bad' thing. I happen to agree.
      I did read Groklaw on this case the last few days, and did find interesting facts in there. As to whether everything reported is 'true', that is hard to verify from here; I did for instance not hear any of the jurors myself, so cannot testify as to how any statements could or should be explained. But discussing HOW they could be interpreted seems legitimate enough.

      The results so far are, from an "anti software patents view", not reassuring. Can everything work out right in the end? Who knows. Not upholding the iPad 'trade dress' may be a light in the dark. This might in the end lead to the abolishment of software patents. But who knows, SCOTUS has neglected to rule on things which in my opinion are 'bad laws', and software patents in the States may live another 10-20 years.

      Am I disappointed (in the jury)? Yes.
      Could something have been wrong with the way the jury came to a conclusion? Yes.
      May it be a vector to research and discuss? Yes. I see NOTHING wrong in discussing this.

      I see nothing wrong with the discussions on Groklaw on this point. I realize many people here on Slashdot are Apple fans, and as such anything Apple may do will recieve positive feedback from a large crowd.
      Do I think those people are wrong? Yes, I do.
      Do I believe these people are astroturfing/are shills? No, the way I see it, many people convinced of 'the Apple way' are so from conviction. From the active way you participate in this discussion (many times with +3 or +5 insightful), I guess you (and others) may be very disappointed with the fact that Groklaw mostly took a position opposite to yours.
      The fact that you agreed previously with Groklaw may make this more emotional with you, I guess 'wrong' opinions by people or groups respected by you comes harder. I do, however, see a trend at Groklaw, which only could lead to it taking the stand that it took (and takes): software patents are bad, anyone using them to stifle innovation or competition should be frowned upon, and any legal arguments against this should be investigated.

      I write this post, trying to avoid letting this be seen as an 'ad hominem' attack on you.
      I do, however, believe that your attack here on Groklaw is misplaced. If you see any factual errors, please state them on Groklaw, as far as I know dissenting opinions are given enough room.

    10. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by devent · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Twisted? Groklaw commented that the jury had some inconsistencies in their judgement, like awarded damages for devices that did not infringe on the patents, also the jury did not calculated the sum right. Also Groklaw commented that the juror make a statement that they wanted to punish Samsung, contrary to the jury instructions.

      "We wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable."

      So I do not know what Groklaw "twisted". And of course you get +4 "insightful" or whatever.

      --
      http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
    11. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by pseudofrog · · Score: 2

      But they should have chosen the analysis that best fits what they determine to be the appropriate analysis, not which one punishes Samsung appropriately. Having multiple analyses does not free them of their obligation to follow the instructions and make their decision accordingly.

      Not sure if it's a big deal, but they definitely borked that one.

    12. Re:Groklaw is too emotionally involved by Tough+Love · · Score: 2

      ...but they are still emphasising facts...

      Not lately. Lately it's been misquotes, misrepresentations, and opinions.

      According to you, a random bozo on the internet. Care to cite some specifics?

      --
      When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
  9. Re:phew by deniable · · Score: 2

    At least they're not unfairly anti-Apple.

  10. Re:phew by DJRumpy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Not only that, I suspect when he said they skipped it (the previous sentences indicate they had a very heavy, although civil, debate about it going on), they most likely circled back to it later once tempers had cooled. This is perfectly acceptable. I've been a jury foreman before and we had similar instructions from the judge. If you needed to skip something while gathering more information, or just to review other evidence while deciding on a previous question, then do so. You may not be able to come to a decision on every question in the order they are given to the jury. If you can't resolve an answer, then skip it and come back to it later.

    Samsung spent hours trying to present prior art evidence. They actually spent a relatively large portion of their case on it. Implying that the jury somehow 'skipped' it because the outcome isn't what you may have been hoping for it reaching a bit. Every jury gets very explicit instructions, and any time there is a deadlock, you can stop at any time and refer questions to the judge on how to proceed.

  11. Taking a step back... by Zocalo · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... and there's a potential huge opportunity for Samsung's marketing department here. As seen here, a court has just effectively ruled that Samsung's products are equivalent to Apple's. So, other than the Apple logo and brand name, why would you want an iThing when you can have the Samsung equivalent for any from a few tens of bucks to several hundred bucks less? After all, according to a US District Court, they are now essentially the same thing!

    The trick (of course) would be for Samsung to pull off the marketing campaign without being found in contempt of court or getting their products pulled from the shelves...

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
    1. Re:Taking a step back... by Swampash · · Score: 2, Funny

      a court has just effectively ruled that Samsung's products are equivalent to Apple's.

      No, it's ruled that Samsung's products are illegal copies of Apple products. And if you read Samsung's own testimony, Samsung admits that they're shitty copies.

  12. Re:phew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Unfortunately, they're hard to find. There's a piece here and there, but no really good source that's been consistent. Maybe this trial was just too polarizing.

    So you got nothing, except an excuse to smear groklaw. You smell quite shilly.

  13. Re:Ignored prior art? by sribe · · Score: 3, Informative

    Appeal approved!

    Of course, if they had actually ignored the prior art. Forget the spin in the post, and actually read the quote, carefully this time, and explain exactly how you conclude that they did not consider prior art.

  14. Re:phew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Groklaw is more for fairness and a saner patent system than anti-apple. PJ points out that she was accused of just the opposite in the Apple v. Pystar case. There were people accusing her of being an Apple fanboy at that time.

    In this case the objections are more about the verdict not having fairly considered the evidence. From the speed of the jury deliberations alone (considering there were 700 questions that needed answering) it is hard to see how they managed. Add that to some of what the jury members have been saying and the whole process seems rather questionable that they paid attention to the instructions and the facts in the case.

    Whether any of this adds any grounds for appeal or opportunities for the judge to adjust the verdict or damages is anyones guess.

  15. Re:phew by bmo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    which I have followed and loved for years

    but I refuse to read him, because I know how badly he misrepresents things, how completely unable he is to objectively evaluate. (And what a liar he has been in the past--see opposition to Oracle's purchase of MySQL and his letter to EU commission.) So to the extent that he was right, I would consider that an accident of his prejudice aligning with reality, for once.

    Someone who has been "following Groklaw for years" doesn't make this mistake. Either that or you are one of those people who still insists that PJ is actually 5 people at IBM.

    And your argument is backed up by nothing.

    --
    BMO

  16. Re:phew by bmo · · Score: 2

    Oh nevermind. Disregard the above. I thought you were talking about PJ

    That said, PJ is groklaw. "Foss Patents" is a contributor, but it's still PJ's site and she steers the discussion.

    And I still think you're trying to smear Groklaw unjustly.
    --
    BMO

  17. Re:Could jury know trial would likely go to appeal by Zocalo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    IANAL, etc., but while they might have assumed that there would be an appeal - it was pretty much a given, regardless of the result, really - but it's not supposed to matter. One of their obligations as jurors is to set their personal opinions aside and provide both sides with a fair trial. If they can be shown to have failed to do that, then the only fair and legal way forward is to throw the entire thing out and start over from scratch with a new jury.

    There are generally two way of appealing a verdict; attacking the opposing legal team (e.g. withholding and/or misrepresenting evidence), and attacking the court (e.g. failure to follow procedure, clear bias). I'm guessing Samsung's legal team will go mostly for the latter. Not withstanding the rulings from Judge Koh are heavily in Apple's favour, particularly in the case of denying some of their evidence (potential bias), there is a growing sentiment in the press that the jury badly failed in their duties, with the clear failure to sanity check their rulings against their penalties as Exhibit A.

    My prediction; successful appeal from Samsung on grounds of a mis-trial then back to District Court for a do-over and, no doubt, subsequent appeals and counter appeals... It's going to be a loooong time before we can stick a fork in this one.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  18. Jurors as ex parte expert witnesses by macraig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    How does the judicial system compensate for a jury foreman aggressively promoting himself as a de facto expert witness?

    1. Re:Jurors as ex parte expert witnesses by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

      Samsung's lawyers failed to do their job when he was selected as a juror.

    2. Re:Jurors as ex parte expert witnesses by Mashiki · · Score: 2

      Samsung's lawyers failed to do their job when he was selected as a juror.

      Perhaps not. The real problem is where the trial was being held. I mean really, this would be about the same as getting a jury pool for a murder, from the people in the same neighborhood they lived. Or heck a jury for kiddie diddler, from the same neighborhood. It was a poor choice of venue, which makes me question why there.

      --
      Om, nomnomnom...
  19. Re:phew by sribe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    That said, PJ is groklaw. "Foss Patents" is a contributor, but it's still PJ's site and she steers the discussion.

    FOSS Patents is most certainly not a contributor to Groklaw. It is a completely different site, with a different viewpoint, nearly always the opposite of Groklaw (so far, it's much newer). And I was contrasting it to Groklaw.

    I went back and checked, and my post was perfectly clear. This misunderstanding is 100% on you. Either you skimmed it and skipped entire phrases, or you have extremely poor reading skills.

  20. Re:phew by FhnuZoag · · Score: 2

    Juries, however, are supposed to make decisions according to the jury instructions they were given. If it's clear that they did not even read the instructions, and failed to apply a reasonable process in evaluating each case fairly and individually, then the judge is justified in filing for a mistrial.

  21. Groklaw is on the side of the Law by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Groklaw consistantly sides with the law, and with common sense. I go to groklaw.net to cut through all of the bias and sensationalism of the mainstream press.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/technology/jury-reaches-decision-in-apple-samsung-patent-trial.html
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-08-25/apple-s-1-billion-verdict-may-lead-to-samsung-sales-ban.html
    http://gizmodo.com/5937762/samsung-vs-apple-apple-winning-big-updating
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-19377261

    Now that's bias!

    1. Re:Groklaw is on the side of the Law by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

      I know right! She is biased against my brand of calculator. It occasionally states 2+2=3 but that's an innovative feature I have patented.

  22. Re:phew by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >What is this world coming to when we want to "invalidate" the findings of a jury? What is the purpose of law and trials and jury if we're just going to "overturn" any ruling that is unpopular?

    When the jury boasts that it reached it's verdict without considering all of that pesky boring evidence, what indeed is the purpose of jury trials?

  23. Re:phew by MrLint · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I really want to make a bunch of personal comments, but lets skip that for the moment.. I'd like to bring to your attention at least this one detail..

    "The jury appears to have awarded damages for the Galaxy Tab 10.1 LTE infringing — $219,694 worth — but didn't find that it had actually infringed anything....A similar inconsistency exists for the Intercept, for which they'd awarded Apple over $2 million "

    http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2012082510525390

    Your assertion that somehow juries are some kind of paragons of perfection is incorrect. The fact that they could not get simple things like "not infringing" = "no damages" right is a clear indication they did sloppy work, did not understand/did not follow the instructions, or directly ignored them. This is the behavior you are arguing is the inviolate will of the jury.

  24. Re:phew by DJRumpy · · Score: 3, Informative

    This enforces the above. That they couldn't decide this one 'going down the list' and circled back later.

    http://www.cnet.com/2300-1_1-10013512-4.html

    One of Apple's clean sweeps in the verdict was that all Samsung's smartphones were found to infringe on Apple's patent covering bounce-back. In short, this is what lets a user scroll beyond the edge of an image, Web page, or list, and have it bounce back onto the screen.

    "We were thinking Apple filed a patent for bounce-back, (and) that's where we got stuck...because (of) prior art," Ilagan said. He added that the group eventually found some of Samsung's prior art "significantly different" from the technology outlined in Apple's bounce-back patent.

  25. Re:phew by itsdapead · · Score: 4, Insightful

    PJ was pretty much rabidly pro-Apple in her assessment of Apple vs. Psystar. So much so you got called a troll if you didn't agree.

    That was pretty much a case of "the enemy of my enemy is my friend": If you go back and read the postings PJ was convinced that Psystar were being bankrolled by the same anti-GPL forces behind SCO (maybe) and that if Psystar's attempts to use anti-trust and "first sale" to overturn Apple's EULA succeeded, they'd be used as precedent to attack the GPL (questioning that logic would get you accused of being a paid Microsoft shill).

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  26. Somebody said it very well: by sootman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "When the iPhone debuted, it was widely criticized for having no buttons/keys. Now people think the iPhone's design is 'obvious.' "
    - Dan Frakes

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    1. Re:Somebody said it very well: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
    2. Re:Somebody said it very well: by gl4ss · · Score: 2

      but it has buttons.
      skipping to just having a home button is pretty obvious too - totally obvious if one wants to be cheap and not include a trackpoint. skipping a jog dial is obvious too if you want to save money/space.

      but that type of design wasn't entirely new either. too bad f700 was excluded and they didn't want to bog down with evidence.

      --
      world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
  27. Re:Can this kind of troll die already? by SuricouRaven · · Score: 2

    How government is supposed to operate and how government actually operates are not at all the same thing. While the other branches of government have no formal power to influence the ruling of a judge, they can still bring informal power to bear upon the decision. If the decision threatened a corporation so great as to be of strategic importance to US interests in global affairs, then I imagine that would happen.

  28. Re:Saying all US judges are honest is stupid. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Corporations being "persons" is a 500 - 600 year old doctrine of law. Back to the Maritime and before to about the time North America was even discovered. Investors stopped financing trade voyages because they would be 100% liable if the ship went down. They many times lost their homes, money and land to pay the families of those lost on the ship. The Corporation simply created a legal "person" to take on that liability and limit the investors losses to the amount they invest.

    It was nothing new created by the Supreme Court. Corporations are made of people. Yes they can be killed (aka Dissolved) and individuals within it can be personally liable for their actions.

  29. Prior art bogging us down? by Biff+Stu · · Score: 4, Informative

    Sounds like the USPO.

  30. Is everyone OK? by Forty+Two+Tenfold · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Apparently the foreman (a patent holder himself) took the jury through the process of how patents work and thus allowed them to return so quickly with a verdict without need of any instructions on how to work through all the material.

    Doesn't this qualify as a mistrial? Was the material in the form of foreman's explanation vetted by the court? Is it admissible as expert testimony? As a guideline perhaps?

    --
    Upward mobility is a slippery slope - the higher you climb the more you show your ass.
    1. Re:Is everyone OK? by danomac · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Well, if Samsung won, it probably would've been thrown out anyway as it was all over the news regarding the judge not allowing prior art evidence. This whole trial is a mess.

    2. Re:Is everyone OK? by petsounds · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Juries can talk about whatever they want in private deliberations, and there's no way you can remove prior knowledge and bias from the jury unless you weed out those people during voir dire. Obviously it was in Apple's interest to have a guy who held patents on the jury, so they kept him in. The other jurors could have well told the foreman they wanted more explicit information or explanations from the judge, but they chose to heed the foreman's advice. Some others had engineering experience. This wasn't your average tech-stupid jury. Was it perhaps a bad decision to not get more explicit instructions, yes.

      Is that cause for mistrial? I doubt it. From what we've heard, there was no suggestion that they discussed or researched the case outside of the deliberation room. Could they have screwed up in other ways and cause a mistrial? Well, I guess we'll find out. But I was under the impression that juror comments post-trial cannot be used to change the outcome of the trial.

    3. Re:Is everyone OK? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You're misinformed on that issue. The reason for voir dire is to remove people who aren't likely to be able to set aside their prior opinions or whom have a stake in the outcome. What they did here was a violation of their oath as jurors. They are given the law and the interpretation of the law that they are to use. They then decide whether or not the plaintiff met the bar under the rules that they were given.

      Now if the judge gave improper directions to the jury, then that's one thing, but this sounds like a willful violation of their duty. Expect this verdict to be vacated and for the case to probably be settled otherwise go back to court for a proper trial.

      The rules are the rules for these things and if the jury does something like this it becomes impossible for the parties to receive a fair hearing.

      BTW, this is why I have never talked about what happened during the deliberations for the trial I was on, no matter what you say there's the possibility of giving the idea that the verdict wasn't fair. I didn't agree with one large aspect of the verdict, but I stand by the rest.

    4. Re:Is everyone OK? by petsounds · · Score: 2

      I haven't read the 106 pages of juror instructions and don't care to, nor do I know all the testimony and evidence presented, but it sounds like -- based on the jury falling back to the foreman's experience with patents -- that the judge and attorneys never really prepared a Patent Law for Dummies for the jurors. If so, this was a big oversight on the part of the judge and attorneys.

      I don't disagree with you, and the jurors should have at least requested more information because it was obviously relevant to making decisions in the case. I was a foreman in a wrongful death trial in which I felt like the jury's hands were tied due to the vagueness of the evidence presented to us. But that's what we had to decide the case on. However, there was also another factor in that case which seems to have played a part here also -- a certain percentage of the jury just didn't really care to be there and was ready to call it quits pretty quickly.

  31. Re:phew by Nerdfest · · Score: 2

    When software patents are tossed, everybody wins ... except maybe some lawyers, but I can live with that.

  32. American Justice System, Dear Lord by davydagger · · Score: 2

    Aparantly we've sunk this low in the US of A.

    Never letting the truth or relivant informaiton get in the way of a good show trial. The only reason we know this much is because google. samsung, motorola, etc.. all intrested android parties have the money and influence in society to matter. Imagine being a random joe.

    If I didn't have faith in the judicial system before, I don't now.

  33. Re:phew by msauve · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "PJ has been extremely anti-Apple and pro-Samsung in this case."

    I don't believe that is true in any way. Groklaw has simply followed the law and the merits without regard to the parties. That her analysis ends up supporting Samsung's case doesn't mean she's "pro-Samsung."

    One need only look at how she's covered Oracle cases to see that - Oracle vs. Lodsys, Oracle's the good guy; Oracle vs. Google, Oracle's the bad guy.

    --
    "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  34. damages by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The other major issue that has surfaced is the calculation of damages. The foreman stated, "we wanted to make sure the message we sent was not just a slap on the wrist...we wanted to make sure it was sufficiently high to be painful, but not unreasonable." If the jurors had bothered to read the jury instructions, they would have hopefully understood that the damages were supposed to be compensatory for lost sales (people buying Samsung thinking they were buying an iphone), not punitive. The inconsistent and seemingly arbitrary breakdown of damages by device reflects this.

  35. Re:It was not an unreasonable verdict by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2

    They didn't ignore prior art, they just had intense disagreements on what constituted prior art.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  36. Re:phew by dell623 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    She bats for freedom an innovation. As odd as it may sound, it's true. Right after the Oracle Google verdict, there was a case between Oracle and a patent troll, where she supported the stand Oracle took, and remarked on the fact that it depends on the case who the bad guy is. She's consistent with her views and her stance in this case is perfectly consistent with the stands she's taken for many years, if you had bothered to go back a bit. Very different from FOSSPatents who picks a side, and when inconvenient news hits, he just ignores it.

  37. Re:Saying all US judges are honest is stupid. by spire3661 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Laying liability onto a fictional construct does not require granting personhood. Its a compeltely stupid concept that attempts to create a new class of citizen.

    --
    Good-bye
  38. Re:phew by Urkki · · Score: 2

    When software patents are tossed, everybody wins ... except maybe some lawyers, but they should be force-fed to the sharks anyway.

    There, fixed that for you.

  39. Something fishy with the foreman by sl4shd0rk · · Score: 3, Informative

    "[Hogan] the jury foreman, who is a patent holder himself told court officials that the jury didn't need the answer to its question to reach a verdict"

    "The foreman told a court representative that the jurors had reached a decision without needing the instructions. "

    "Hogan holds patents, so he took us through his experience. After that it was easier. "

    "In fact we skipped that one," Ilagan continued, "so we could go on faster. It was bogging us down." ...But we took our time. We didn't rush.

    --
    Join the Slashcott! Feb 10 thru Feb 17!
    1. Re:Something fishy with the foreman by CaptBubba · · Score: 2

      That quote needs to be considered in context. They were sent back to resolve some inconsistencies with their verdict (damages awarded for devices found non-infringing), and they asked for the judge to send them some instructions. But between the time they asked and the time the judge had compiled the instructions they evidently had worked their way through what was giving them trouble so they didn't need the instructions anymore.

      While there are many other points that raise serious questions with the verdict, this one matter isn't really fishy.

  40. Re:Many of the Jurors seem to be like US by Solandri · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And also, on the last day, they showed the pictures of the phones that Samsung made before the iPhone came out and ones that they made after the iPhone came out.

    So the decision to exclude evidence (of Samsung's phones in development prior to the iPhone's release) based on a technicality did in fact influence the outcome. Who would've guessed.

    As I said before the verdict, the whole purpose of having deadlines in a court case is so that the trial proceeds in a timely manner. Why? So the delays in the trial do not negate the value of any potential outcome. i.e. the cost of achieving justice does not exceed the value of justice. Here we clearly had the opposite case, where the value of justice (billions of dollars either way) obviously would far, far outweigh the cost of a trial delay. The judge erred in disallowing that evidence due to a missed deadline, and I suspect we're going to have to sit through and pay for yet another trial to correct that error.

  41. People misunderstand Groklaw by itsdapead · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Groklaw is not, and has never been, a neutral, unbiassed source of information.

    What PJ did in the SCO case, and for which she deserves a huge pile of karma, is to present her pro-Linux, pro-GPL argument in an extremely professional, reasoned way, with copious references and links to sources, and with clear, plain English explanations of the law and legal procedures involved. Essentially, she was presenting the case for the defence the way it should be presented if the court system lived up to its own ideals. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that as long as you don't confuse it with being neutral. Also, the way it turned out, she was robustly vindicated in the SCO case.

    She was also very conciliatory towards anybody who fancied slagging off the judge or court system, even when it appeared to be favouring SCO.

    Frankly, I don't see any of that in her coverage of Apple vs. Samsung: cherry picking soundbites from press interviews with jurors, openly deriding the process, and claiming fuzzy snaps of tablet-like devices from "Soylent Green" as prior art (maybe it was, the Jury largely junked the iPad design patents, but the PJ of old would have scrupulously backed up that argument with extracts from the patents and case law about what constituted prior art).

    I'm not sure what people are hoping for with an appeal/retrial. The parties are both big enough and ugly enough to loose the odd billion. Samsung's patent claims on 'integrating phones cameras and email' and 'listening to music while using an app' are just as poisonous as Apple's - possibly harder to work round if they'd been found to be infringed, and the idea that you can charge both chip makers and device makers that buy their chips for the same patent needed scotching. A korean-style 'you both infringed' verdict would just mean we had two sets of successfully-asserted patents stinking up the marketplace.

    Perfection, in my mind, would have been throwing out all the patents, Samsung and Apple, so we could get back to arguing over whether Samsung copied the iPhone or if they had an independent revelation during a SF movie session on a TV with rounded corners, regardless of whether any of it was patentable. I don't think that outcome is likely as long as the US recognises software patents and the USPTO doesn't get held to account for duff patents.

    --
    In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  42. seems mistrial to me. by SuperDre · · Score: 4, Insightful

    after reading this, it's clear to me that the trial should be repeated.. I already wondered why prior art which was shown by samsung was put aside..

  43. Re:Perhaps deliberate? by Plekto · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Well, that actually would make a lot of business sense.

    After all, if this drags on long enough, Samsung will be fighting over old technology that's no longer being sold, and then they can just drop the entire thing or settle. Without losing their market share or momentum. Apple's real goal of crushing their competition will have been thwarted, and Samsung just has to pay a fine.

    As for prior art, there has been hardly anything that hasn't involved stealing ideas from someone else in the last couple of hundred years. What we need is a more sane approach to it, like do in the fashion industry. Without everyone tacitly agreeing to allow some copying of ideas, the industry itself would simply implode and cease to work properly. Because they do, though, there are rarely legal challenges and everyone prospers (or at least has the ability to try to do so). Innovation requires copying and improving upon existing ideas. Without any ability to do so, people simply go to where they can. ie - China, currently.

    Apple is slowly killing itself off in the mad rush to protect everything down to the placement of a screw and the color of a connector. They're so focused upon the minor tiny crap that they are losing sight of the reality of the marketplace. People buy your product because of the total package that you offer. They could care less what some minor effect or component looks like or where it came from. The more money they waste and the more bad press they generate, the closer they come to the mess they created in the mid 90s. They go down while clutching onto their patents and pride while the majority of the consumers have simply moved on to less expensive and less restrictive products.

    Except this time, there is no Jobs to rescue them. And Wozniak isn't coming to save anything, either.

  44. Re:Many of the Jurors seem to be like US by RyuuzakiTetsuya · · Score: 2

    That was samsungs mistake. They introduced it too late into the discovery process. The discovery phase isn't something you can load anything you want at any time. If you show off something near the end that would require investigation, for instance forensic evidence, and you do it near the end of discovery, what time will be available to do any sort of follow up by the other side?

    Samsung fucked up. Not just with the F700 evidence either.

    --
    Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
  45. Re:phew by Internetuser1248 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The fact that juries are even used in patent disputes... can everyone please think about that again? I know jury trials are enshrined in the US constitution, but they aren't fairer or better. They were, when the constitution was written. The amount of specialist knowledge required in many types of modern legal dispute means that jury trials are more about the charisma of lawyers than anything else. I think it is time to start phasing them out in favour of panels of experts in cases like this, and legal experts (judges) in other cases. There will always be some cases where a jury trial is warranted, but they are becoming a minority.

  46. been on a jury? by Goldsmith · · Score: 2

    I wonder how many people here have been on a jury. I have been on several juries and been a jury foreman. Once the trial is completed, what you are allowed to ask as a juror is quite limited.

    It is the lawyers' job to ask questions of the witnesses and explain the facts of the case. It is the judge's job to explain the relevant law (this is typically minimal and bound by legislation). It is the jury's job to determine what the relevant facts are and how they apply to the law. I've been on juries where we set things aside simply because we didn't see how it was applicable. That happens all the time.

    It is often the case that some jurors understand certain things more than others. It is often the case that neither side's lawyer provides an adequate and complete description of the situation. It is often the case that a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the law is absent in the deliberation room. It is often the case that a jury has only part of the information available to those outside the jury. It is often the case that different jurors have different reasons for making a decision. None of that matters. It is the jury's job to come to a verdict with what THEY are given.

  47. Is that a joke? by cbhacking · · Score: 2

    Wait, seriously? That's so stupid on so many levels that I honestly don't believe it.

    Lets start with the EULA concept. Microsoft is a quite heavy user of EULAs. A court case that said EULAs were unenforceable would hurt MS considerably. On the flip side, the GPL is explicitly not an EULA; it says absolutely nothing with regard to use or the permissions of users; its only restrictions are on distribution. Far from being some kind of harmful precedent, EULAs being overturned would have exactly zero legal effect on the GPL.

    Then let's move on to what the GPL actually is. It's a copyright license, and a rather complex one. It relies on copyright law itself to enforce the "copyleft" terms. This is the same copyright law that also allows things like reselling (doctrine of first sale) by treating IP as an item of property. Although first sale itself has relatively little meaning as directly relates to the GPL, attacking creative uses of copyright law is very much not in a GPL supporter's best interest.

    Then there's the whole concept behind the GPL; that people should be able to adapt and modify and reuse your code. This is very much not Apple's philosophy. Yes, they use some open-source code themselves, and some of it is under GPL (or variations thereof), but of course, that's exactly the same code that Pystar was reselling... with some extra work on their part to adapt it to non-Apple hardware. That's exactly in the spirit of the GPL.

    Now, as I heard it, the reason Pystar lost was because they were found to be violating copyright - that is, they were directly redistributing Apple's copyrighted and proprietary software updates without a license to do so - and I could see how Groklaw might support that idea. I'd think it a bit strange, and certainly contrary to the ideals of F/LOSS, for them to argue that it's illegal to re-"sell"software packages which you received because of other software that you bought and then resold, but I can believe that a strict reading of copyright law does not include a provision for such things. The idea of Groklaw supporting EULAs, though... that's just whacked. If true, I have a lot less respect for them than I used to.

    --
    There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  48. Enough with the "rounded corners" crap. by aristotle-dude · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The patents that were upheld had nothing to do with rectangles with rounded corners but rather to do with interface design patents. Other Android OEMs have been able to avoid the issues that Samsung had by simply not slavishly copying Apple's implementation patents.

    Prior art be damned if Samsung ignores the prior art themselves and instead blindly copies Apple's implementation.

    --
    Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
  49. Re:Many of the Jurors seem to be like US by Xest · · Score: 3, Interesting

    "(Here's some commentary from Reuters and CNet. Also remember, BOTH APPLE AND SAMSUNG VETTED THEM, and were able to remove whomever they wanted; I understand Apple got rid of a Google employee)."

    But bear in mind Samsung can only have so many removed, and this trial was a few miles from Apple's buildings. In that context it's next to impossible to remove every juror and find objective replacements who have no bias towards Apple when the area is so dependent on it for it's income and wealth.

    This is the underlying problem. Such an important trial shouldn't ever be allowed to be held so close to one party's offices under any circumstances. It doesn't happen in criminal trials - where there is a danger a member of a community would be prejudged by everyone in that community if the trial is held in that community, hence why they move the trial elsewhere, and it shouldn't happen in civil trials either when the stakes are so high.

    You know personally, the problem I have with all this is not so much Samsung being found guilty of infringement which has been the focus of every discussion surrounding this case, the problem I have is that all Samsung's claims were thrown out - what happened to them? where is the commentary on them? If Samsung was found guilty of infringing Apple's rectangulary phone patent which is merely opinion depending on how close you believe a phone can be to such a patent, then how could Apple not be found guilty of infringing Samsung's wireless patents in Samsung's counter-claim, a fact which is provable and not open to mere opinion like the design patents are.

    It's that that is the most damning evidence for me that this trial was fundamentally flawed, if Samsung infringed fine, but it's just nonsensical to say Samsung infringed, but somehow Apple didn't, as Apple's works are simply far more blatantly infringing than Samsungs are- Apple kit used tech Samsung has patents on, and contested in this trial, there's simply no question about that, yet those claims apparently vanished into the ether and Apple got everything they wanted. I fully except this may have just been a pro-patent jury who were always going to back patent enforcement and bad luck to Samsung, but then why did they not back Samsung's patents too? The fact they only backed Apple's does pretty much confirm this was not merely a pro-patent jury, but a pro-Apple jury.

  50. Maybe what the jurors did is ok? by CuteSteveJobs · · Score: 2

    In Civil Law countries the Judge embarks on a search for the truth. In America we have an adversarial system where the best liar wins. The judge is merely the umpire. Seriously: Even if the judge knows one side is lying their asses off or hiding evidence they won't say or do anything because that would violate their 'independence'. The jurors are seeking the truth, because the courts are not. Better the jurors are allows to search for the truth and the judge joins them as an advocate not for the court but for the truth!

    PS. I'm not talking about the Apple-Samsung jurors. I think we all agree they suck ass.