Samsung cries juror misconduct in Apple patent case

This is starting to feel like a soap opera. Samsung has asked the judge to throw out the US$1.05-billion ruling in the epic Samsung/Apple patent battle citing jury discrepancies. The smartphone maker claims that Velvin Hogan, the jury foreman, failed to disclose certain relevant information about a prior lawsuit and personal bankruptcy, reports Bloomberg.

Samsung claims that during jury selection, Hogan had been asked about his involvement in a lawsuit against Seagate, a “substantial partner” of Samsung, which he chose not to disclose.

This, the Korean tech giant claims, could have clouded his judgement. According to the company, the disclosure of such information could also have “raised issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore”.

Hogan has defended himself, claiming that the court instructions he received asked for litigation information from within the last 10 years.

“Had I been asked an open-ended question with no time constraint, of course I would’ve disclosed that,” Hogan told Bloomberg. “I’m willing to go in front of the judge to tell her that I had no intention of being on this jury, let alone withholding anything that would’ve allowed me to be excused.”

According to the court transcripts, during his interview the court, Hogan did disclose a 2008 litigation between himself and a former employee, which was dismissed, over intellectual property but made no mention of Seagate.

If the wording of the court’s questions is anything to go by Hogan was asked if he had “ever” been in court and he failed to mention his 1993 litigation which Samsung feels is relevant his decision-making in this particular case. There was no mention of the “last 10 years” in the transcripts.

Since the verdict in August, Samsung has been trying to appeal the ruling while Apple has asked for an injunction of all Samsung products that infringed its patents.

The South Korean company had a major victory yesterday when judge Koh decided to unban the Galaxy Tab 10.1 which was banned proper to proceedings a few months. According to the judge, Samsung may receive some of Apple’s bond payment for that injunction due to the fact that the product was wrongfully banned.

Meanwhile Samsung has added the iPhone 5 to its list of devices in the complaints against Apple.