Samsung Alleges Foreman Misconduct Over Apple Patent

Samsung has disclosed more details about the serious jury misconduct allegations, as it seeks a new trial in order to reverse a jury verdict in the patent lawsuit awarded to Apple.

Samsung alleged that the jury foreman failed to disclose his involvement in another lawsuit that could indicate bias against Samsung.

Foreman Misconduct

Documents filed in US District Court in San Jose, California, accuse jury foreman Velvin Hogan of failing to disclose a lawsuit brought against him by hard-drive maker Seagate, his former employer and a company in which Samsung has a substantial investment.

According to news reports, the suit was brought against Hogan for breach of contract.

Samsung is seeking to appeal a set of verdicts handed down 24 August by the jury in San Jose that found that Samsung had violated multiple Apple patents for the iPhone and iPad products in the making of Samsung’s own competing smartphones and tablets. The jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion (£652m) in damages.

In a related move 1 October, District Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the three-week trial, lifted an injunction she had imposed prior to the trial against the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the US. While the jury found that Samsung violated multiple Apple patents, it did not find that the Galaxy Tab 10.1 had infringed on any patents.

In a brief filed with the court, Samsung alleged that while Hogan disclosed one lawsuit in which he was involved, he failed to disclose two others, including the breach of contract case involving Seagate.

“Mr. Hogan’s failure to disclose the Seagate suit raises issues of bias that Samsung should have been allowed to explore in questioning,” Samsung stated. A hearing before Koh on the juror misconduct allegations and other appeal matters is set for December.

In yet another chapter in the Apple vs. Samsung legal battle, Samsung filed a motion alleging that the new Apple iPhone 5 infringes on Samsung patents. A trial in that case is tentatively set for 2014, according to Bloomberg.

Bitter Rivals

After the jury verdicts were handed down in August, Apple added the newly released Samsung Galaxy S III smartphone to the list of Samsung products it claims violate Apple patents.

The litigation is a reflection of the highly competitive rivalry between the two companies in the mobile device market.

Samsung and Apple are the first and second best-selling smartphone vendors in the market, respectively, according to figures from the research firm IDC.  In the second quarter of 2012, Samsung smartphone sales jumped by 173 percent from the second quarter of 2011 to 50.2 million units. Apple’s sales grew by 27.5 percent to 26 million units.

Apple, however, holds a substantial lead in the sale of tablets according to a report from IHS. In the first half of 2012, Apple held a 64.4 percent share of the global tablet market with close to 29 million iPads sold, compared with Samsung’s distant second place share of 9.9 percent with 4.4 million units sold.

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