Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Samsung
quantr writes with the news that Apple claims that the company "wasn't aware during trial that the foreman of the jury that issued a $1.05 billion verdict against Samsung Electronics Co. was involved in a lawsuit with his former employer, Seagate Technology Inc. 'Samsung asked Apple to disclose when it first learned about the litigation between the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, and Seagate. Apple responded in a filing yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California. Samsung is attempting to get the Aug. 24 verdict thrown out based on claims the trial was tainted by the foreman's failure during jury selection to tell U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh, who presided over the case, that he filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and was sued by Seagate."
Why did it take them so bloody long to reply then?
Have you compiled your kernel today??
Talk about grasping at straws. Oh wait ... no ... just ambulance chasers keeping the $$'s flowing. In other news everyone on the Jury has bought either a Samsung or Apple product or product containing a Samsung part at some point in their life and obviously tainted the jury.
This submission spams a boring blog, with a link to the real article.
All these things should be decided by a single expert in the issues at hand.
Either incompetent or lying, it would seem.
Look, the problem here isn't the jury, or the decision. Samsung did infringe that patent.
It's the BLOODY STUPID PATENT THAT SHOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ISSUED. A patent that fails basic common sense tests of invention, prior art and obviousness, because the patent office has gotten so far away from reality that it gives patents for existing stuff simply by adding "on a handset".
So you may have wished the jury was just normal people, who would see the stupidness of it, and reject the claim regardless of the patent, but instead you got a person who FOLLOWED THE PATENT LAW, the insane stupid, nonsensical law, and promptly issued a $1 billion penalty that was appropriate, if we all lived in a lunatic asylum where this patent regime makes sense.
IMHO, the fix for this decision is for Korea to issue a patent infringement case against Apple for $2 billion, and make it clear to everyone that this is just protectionism disguised as an 'innovative' curved corner design, and a camera icon that looks like a camera.
The jury foreman did not have a previous tangle with Samsug. He had a previous tangle with Seagate. Seagate is not a subsidiary of Samsung. Samsung has invested in Seagate to the extent of a 10% share.
It seems a stretch to claim that the foreman's anger at Seagate from 20 years ago must necessarily extend to all current investors in Seagate.
God damnit slashdot editors, pull your head out of your asses...
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2012-11-30/apple-says-it-was-unaware-of-samsung-jury-foreman-s-suit
Fix typo please.
"Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Samsung"
should read
"Apple Claims Ignorance of Jury Foreman's Previous Tangle With Seagate"
There are two kinds of people: 1) those who start arrays with one and 1) those who start them with zero.
was involved in a lawsuit with his former employer, Seagate Technology Inc.
So what? 20 years ago Seagate sued this guy... how is this even remotely relevant to Samsung?
Shouldn't there be a (mis/re)trial regardless?
This is relevant because it has a potential for bias, and also because this guy did not tell the whole truth in pre-trial questioning, raising the possibility that he was trying to get on the jury to vindicate his legal philosophy on patents. If Samsung had known about the Seagate matter, they could have objected to his being seated on the jury.
Wow... kudos to the foreman... waiting in the tall grass for 20 years for some sweet payback... that billion dollar verdict against Samsung will make Seagate think twice before suing him into bankruptcy ever again. What I wouldn't give to be a fly on the wall at Seagate... they must be shitting their pants, thinking "how did we let this guy fuck us over so hard?"
/sarcasm
This makes no sense.
The Admin and the Engineer
Just have a new trial, fine the foreman the cost of the original trial that he deliberately and maliciously tainted, and be done with it.
http://drive.seagate.com/content/samsung-en-us
as far as hd businesses go, they're effectively the same company in strategic partnership. for someone with a grudge it would certainly be enough.
the guy's a dimwit though, bragging about. no ethics - or style - at all.
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Fry Samsung, fry!
The jurors where asked if they had been involved in patentlawsuites before. The foreman gave a long answer that omited his lawsuit against seagate and made it look like he has not been involved in any other lawsuit before. Also samsung apparently holds a 10% share of Seagate, which makes it reasonable that they may at least be partially responsible for seagates actions ( an with that the foreman vs. seagate lawsuit).
Do you honestly believe Samsung didn't know about the Hogan's past? They should have bumped him during jury selection. A typical question for all jury candidates during voir dire for a civil trial is, "Have you or anyone you know ever been involved in a law suit?" It's Samsung's own fault for not asking the obvious, competent question and keeping Hogan, except Samsung already knew the answer and wanted him on the jury so any pro-Apple verdict could (hopefully) be overturned. We'll see how the judge rules, but keeping Hogan may have been a very bad bet.
The defense is simply the statute of limitations. He was asked the question and it had a time limit. He answered honestly and accurately. IIRC the time limit he was asked to respond to was 10 years. His litigation preceeded that and the trial proceeded. Therefore it is judicially factually true the revelation of a pre-10 year lawsuit AFTER the verdict is not relevant.
That is only the case on a criminal trial, and then only if nobody finds out about it before hand.
Jury nullification is not a legal right, it isn't something specifically granted to juries. It is a de facto ability in criminal trials due to the prohibition against double jeopardy. Once a jury has been impaneled, if the case is dismissed or an innocent verdict is returned, the case may never be brought for retrial. As such, the jury can nullify by returning an innocent verdict.
However for that matter, the judge can do the same. The judge can dismiss the case after the jury has been seated and that is it. Jeopardy applies, no retrial (there can be a retrial in the case of a mistrial, that is different).
Now, in the event the judge finds out that a juror is trying to ignore the law and persuade other jurors to do likewise, the judge can dismiss the juror and bring in an alternate, or declare a mistrial and have the case retried.
Also this only applies to innocent verdicts. If a jury finds someone guilty for reasons outside the law a judge can set aside the verdict, an appellate court can toss out the case, and so on. There is no prohibition against review of guilty verdicts and indeed it happens all the time, on many levels. Only innocent verdicts are unreviewable because of the fifth amendment.
However none of this matters in a civil case, because both sides can appeal. So regardless of what the jury finds, it can be appealed and thus reviewed. Doesn't matter if the jury finds the respondent responsible or not, it can be appealed.
Have you been involved in relevant litigation IN THE LAST TEN YEARS. The suit was more than ten years ago. If he's on the jury wrongfully, it's because they didn't ask the right questions.
Both companies have to be lying. Otherwise their respective attorneys would have posed the proper question to every juror, "Have you ever been involved in a law suit?" Of course, Slashdot is going to focus on the dark side of Apple, because Apple is the true innovator and Samsung/Google are the copycats paving the way for Slashdotters to gangbang Apple over its patented technology.
/looks above...
A testament to the effectiveness of the Apple RDF