Samsung asks court to throw out $1.05 billion verdict, saying jury foreman was biased

Samsung has filed with the U.S. District Court on Thursday, requesting that the $1.05 billion verdict against it and in favor of Apple, be thrown out. The Korean manufacturer claims that the jury foreman, Velvin Hogan, was biased. According to Samsung, Hogan failed to inform the court that he had been sued by his former employer, Seagate Technology. Samsung is Seagate's largest direct shareholder and has a strategic relationship with the firm.

According to fellow juror Manuel Llagan, Hogan took over the deliberations with his first hand knowledge of patents. Llagan said that Hogan explained the process of obtaining a patent to the rest of the jury. Samsung says that the 67 year-old Hogan used incorrect legal standards as he walked the jury through the case. Hogan refused to comment on the allegations, which Samsung says can only be cured through granting Samsung's request for a new trial.

In an interview with Hogan conducted after the trial, the jury foreman said that the evidence was overwhelming, but also railed against companies that use others' intellectual property. As an inventor himself, this obviously was a touchy subject for him. But the court now will have to determine whether or not Hogan's actions went beyond that and were some kind of payback or revenge against Seagate via Samsung. In a post-verdict interview, Hogan said that he tried to imagine how he would defend Apple's patents as if they were his own.

Some legal experts have criticized the jury in the Apple-Samsung patent case for making the decision to ignore the testimony presented by Samsung showing that there was prior art involved with the design of the Apple iPhone. The prior art defense is commonly used by firms accused of infringing on patents.

source: WSJ