Apple v. Samsung jury will mull 53 pages of instructions to prepare verdict
Closing arguments in the patent-infringement case between the world's two largest smartphone makers will take place Tuesday. Then it's up to the eight-person jury in the San Jose, Calif. federal court to decide who prevails.
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- The jurors on the Apple v. Samsung patent-infringement trial being argued in a court here will soon wade through 53 pages of instructions as they mull their verdict.
The 43 different instructions cover everything from burden of proof to how to determine monetary damages.
"It is your duty to find the facts from all the evidence in the case," Judge Lucy Koh will tell the jury. "To those facts you will apply the law as I give it to you. You must follow the law as I give it to you whether you agree with it or not. Do not let personal likes or dislikes, opinions, prejudices, bias, or sympathy influence your decision. Bias includes bias for or against any party or any witness based upon nationality, race or ethnicity. That means that you must decide the case solely on the evidence before you. You will recall that you took an oath to do so."
The eight-person jury will start deliberating following closing arguments Tuesday, one day later than anticipated. An appeals court ruling April 25 in Apple's related patent-infringement suit against Motorola threw a wrench in the Apple v. Samsung case, extending the duration of the trial by one day to give the parties one additional hour each -- on top of the 25 apiece they already had -- to present more evidence.
The US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit on Friday upheld a ruling by Judge A. Posner of the Northern District of Illinois that determined a specific interpretation of Apple's '647 "quick links" patent. Koh had allowed the patent, particularly the use of an analyzer server, to be interpreted in a way that differed from Posner's accepted meaning, so she allowed Samsung and Apple to address the patent Monday.
Apple recalled Todd Mowry, a professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, to argue that even with a different interpretation of analyzer server, Samsung infringed Apple's patents. Samsung attorneys tried to show inconsistencies in Mowry's testimony, and they recalled their own witness, Kevin Jeffay, professor of computer science at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, to testify about the technology.
Jeffay, in his first moments of testimony, said he'd held a certain view of analyzer server the entire course of the case, but the court wouldn't allow him to talk about it. Koh and Apple's attorneys took issue with the statement, and Koh ultimately determined that Jeffay never adopted the definition from Posner. She said that he never took a firm position on the definition of analyzer server and struck his testimony after the lawyers argued over the issue for nearly half an hour. Jeffay went on to testify that Samsung did not infringe.
The two companies finished witness testimony at 11:30 a.m. PT. Koh will read the instructions to the jury at 1 p.m. following a longer-than-normal lunch break.