Questions arise over fairness of verdict in less than three days


The latest verdict in favor of Apple by a nine-member jury at a U.S. federal court in San Jose, California, will lead Samsung Electronics to file a motion that it hopes will alter the course of the ongoing dispute between the two tech giants.

The Korean company will take the next step of motion filing to re-address its arguments and ask the court to reconsider its points, which it believes have not been fully reflected in this trial, ahead of a final ruling.

At this stage, the judge can ask the jury to literally go back into their rooms, re-think the case and come up with a more reasonable decision. In the worst case scenario, a final ruling may demand Samsung to pay much more than the $1 billion in damages initially ordered by the jury, an industry source explained.

The latter will push Samsung to appeal, and as many legal experts said, the two can end up at the highest court should they fight to the end.

Questions have been raised regarding fairness and bias following this trial.

Various news have reported whether it is possible to come up with a decision by the jury in less than three days touching on patent and technology issues that are highly complex.

The jury consisted of practically no professionals in the areas of intellectual property other than one person, who, according to Reuters news agency, used to be “an engineer and holds a patent,” while others have “engineering and legal experience.”

An industry source who is closely following the case said the core issue at hand is whether it is even feasible to look into all aspects of this case, including some 700 questions handed to the jury by Samsung and 49 by Apple, in less than three days.

Some news media reported that this trial will spike prices of smartphones should Apple be further granted a monopoly in the market, while others claimed the verdict was an act of national protectionism.

Discussions extended to whether one can exclusive use designs of “rectangles and rounded corners.”

Forbes commented that “Design is not invention. It arises from a common pool of creativity.”

Apple and Samsung will have their first hearing regarding a sales injunction filed by Apple on September 20.

Previously, Apple received a court approval for a sales ban on Google-Samsung Galaxy Nexus smartphones.

By Park Hyong-ki (hkp@heraldcorp.com)