Will Judge Koh rule on flawed Apple verdict?

Samsung targets foreman Hogan   U.S. Judge Koh By Kim Yoo-chul Can U.S. Federal Judge Luch Koh go ahead and rule on a verdict by a “flawed jury” on Dec. 6? Legal experts argue against Judge Koh belatedly calling the jury’s decision flawed. It would be tantamount to admitting to a mistake. This is not about the content of the $1 billion verdict against Samsung but more about the procedure. The judge has promised she will reexamine alleged misconduct by jury foreman Velvin Hogan. In an interesting twist, Samsung submitted to Koh a request to have the ruling nullified, citing the foreman’s failure to come clean about himself during the jury selection process. The request was filed on Nov. 9 and the copy of the 27-page document was obtained by The Korea Times. ``As post-trial developments have made clear, jury foreman Velvin Hogan deliberately concealed information about his prior litigation experience in response to this Court’s direct questioning about that subject. Had he answered truthfully, Samsung could have stricken him and prevented his introduction of extraneous information into the jury’s deliberations,’’ the document states. The document continues; ``Apple does not dispute that Samsung learned the key facts that Mr. Hogan withheld only after the verdict was reached. In suggesting that Samsung should have investigated the truthfulness of Hogan’s answer earlier, Apple invites unprecedented intrusion into juror’s affairs. While juror misconduct is a rare basis to void a jury verdict, this is the rare case in which this Court should grant such remedy.’’ Just a day after Samsung submitted the legal documents to the California court, the company’s mobile chief Shin Jong-kyun confirmed that his company has no plan to sign a peace treaty with Apple. ``Regardless of HTC’s decision to settle all of its patent disputes with Apple, Samsung has no plan to follow the HTC case,’’ Shin told local reporters, Thursday. ``Apple’s opposition cannot defeat the grounds Samsung has established for a new trial. This is the rare case where juror misconduct requires a new trial because the jury foreman withheld crucial information at the very moment it was most important that he reveal it,’’ Samsung chief attorney Charles Verhoeven was quoted as saying in the legal paper. Apple has condemned Samsung’s attempt for a new trial based on jury misconduct, issuing a statement saying, ``Samsung’s legal attacks are baseless, and its jury misconduct motion, frivolous.’’ While the possibility is extremely low that the original verdict will be overturned, patent experts believe that there could be changes to the August ruling. ``Adjustments are likely, and we may actually see adjustments in favor of both parties. On the bottom line, Apple obviously has more to lose at this stage. If Apple could just accept the jury verdict as the final outcome and avoid adjustments and an appeal, it would take it any day of the week without hesitation,’’ said German patent expert Florian Mueller, via e-mail. ``I’m now more skeptical than I was a couple of months ago about Apple’s entitlement to damages enhancements. I now believe that Judge Koh will take the damages amount below $1 billion because the jury made at least one very obvious mistake, awarding Apple a disgorgement of Galaxy Prevail profits, which is contrary to law because that particular device was not held to infringe any design patent and disgorgement is available only for design patents, not for software patents.’’