“Apple Inc. said it 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.,” Joel Rosenblatt reports for Businessweek. “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.”
“Samsung asked Apple to disclose when it first learned about the litigation between the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, and Seagate,” Rosenblatt reports. “Apple responded in a filing yesterday in federal court in San Jose, California. ‘Apple has not identified any Apple attorney or other member of the Apple litigation teams who was aware that Mr. Hogan had been a party to lawsuits involving Seagate until after the conclusion of trial, when Samsung raised the matter in connection with its post-trial motions,’ Apple said in its filing.”
Rosenblatt reports, “Judge Lucy Koh has scheduled a Dec. 6 hearing to weigh Apple’s bid, based on the verdict, for a permanent U.S. sales ban on at least eight Samsung smartphone models and the Tab 10.1 tablet computer. She will also consider Samsung’s juror misconduct claims.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Samsung’s grasping at straws, but predicting an outcome from the U.S. legal system is a fool’s errand. If we had to bet on anything, we’d bet that Samsung’s lawyers made sure Hogan was on that jury as insurance in the event they lost. Yes, it’s pretty weak insurance, but it’s something, at least (Judge Lucy bought enough of it not to have dismissed it out of hand). And, judging by the evidence below, it’s quite likely Samsung’s legal team knew full well that their chances of losing were high.
Apple’s products came first, then Samsung’s:
Related articles:
Samsung claims jury foreman ‘misconduct’ tainted Apple patent case – October 3, 2012
Apple calls Samsung’s allegation of jury misconduct ‘frivolous on its face’ – September 26, 2012
Judge Lucy Koh to consider whether foreman in Apple v. Samsung concealed info – November 9, 2012
Samsung goes after jury foreman in bid to reverse Apple verdict – September 26, 2012