Judge to review claims of juror misconduct in Apple-Samsung case

Federal District Judge Lucy Koh said she will review claims that the jury foreman in the Apple-Samsung patent infringement case hid information during the jury selection process.

In a major blow to Samsung, a jury in August awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages.

Samsung is arguing that jury foreman Velvin Hogan did not disclose that he filed for bankruptcy in the 1990s after being sued by his former employer, Seagate Technologies, according to CNET. Since 2011, Samsung has owned shares of Seagate and has a partnership with the company, according to the Register.

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Additionally, Samsung said that one of the lawyers who represented Seagate against Hogan is married to one of the lawyers who represented Samsung in the case, according to the Register.

Koh said she will review the matter at a hearing on Dec. 6.

“The Court will consider the questions of whether the jury foreperson concealed information during voir dire, whether any concealed information was material, and whether any concealment constituted misconduct,” the judge said in her order, according to CNET.

“An assessment of such issues is intertwined with the question of whether and when Apple had a duty to disclose the circumstances and timing of its discovery of information about the foreperson,” Koh added.

According to the Register, Apple says Samsung’s claims are a “convoluted theory.” The Cupertino, Calif., company also said it was Samsung’s lawyer’s jobs to review the jurors during the selection.

“Samsung’s theory fails on the merits because the decades-old Seagate dispute has nothing to do with this case and would not have supported challenge for cause, and Samsung has not shown that Mr. Hogan’s responses were “dishonest” and “material,” as Supreme Court precedent requires,” Apple said according to the Register.

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