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Apple, Samsung file first joint set of disputed jury instructions

In a 361-page joint filing late Friday Apple and Samsung laid out their respective objections to the opposing party's preliminary jury instructions for the upcoming district court patent trial scheduled for the end of July.

The disputed proposed jury instructions cover a host of procedural necessities regarding juror handling and includes operating minutiae down to when an instruction can be given and how said instruction is phrased. Many objections are based on unnecessary verbiage or when an instruction should be given, though some call race into contention and illustrate the implications of trying an international patent case in the U.S.

Samsung is worried about how a jury may perceive a supporting witness's ethnicity as seen in the South Korean company's juror questionnaire and has extended that concern to jury instructions.

For example, Samsung disputes Apple's proposed reading of the following when the first foreign speaker testifies:

Languages other than English may be used during this trial. One such language will be Korean.

The evidence to be considered by you is only that provided through the official court translators. Although some of you may know Korean, it is important that all jurors consider the same evidence. Therefore, you must accept the English translation. You must disregard any different meaning.

In objection, the Galaxy maker claims that the "proposal will disrupt the trial and unnecessarily call attention to the witness' ethnicity." The company is looking to remove any relation of ethnicity and expert testimony during the trial and wants to keep the issue of race out of the proceedings completely.

Samsung's proposed instruction reads almost identically to Apple's, though "Korean" has been removed from the leading sentence:

Languages other than English may be used during this trial.

Witnesses who do not speak English or are more proficient in another language testify through an official court interpreter. Although some of you may know, for example, Korean, it is important that all jurors consider the same evidence. Therefore, you must accept the interpreter's translation of the witness's testimony. You must disregard any different meaning.

At issue is the interpretation of testimony given by Korean-speaking experts by a Korean-speaking juror who may form a different translation than the one given by a court interpreter.

While most of the parties' objections are par for the course, some call into question the interpretation of certain trade and patent laws which are instrumental in trying a case regarding such issues. An example is Samsung's proposed design patent summary which states "[a] ‘design patent’ protects the way an article looks, but not the way it functions.” Apple takes issue with this statement, asserting that the "instruction is misleading because design patents protect articles of manufacture that have or serve a function, so long as the overall design of the article is not “dictated by function.” Similar objections are seen throughout the document.

Presiding Judge Lucy Koh will take the proposed instructions into consideration and may request an updated pared-down set this week. Another option would be to hold judgment until the pretrial conference scheduled in which case the parties would have to make dynamic adjustments during the trial.

The Apple v. Samsung jury trial is slated to begin with juror selection on July 30.



16 Comments

dickprinter 16 Years · 1058 comments

Finally an AI report about the upcoming patent trial without a quote from Florian Mueller, the FOSS Patents dude.

hill60 16 Years · 6976 comments

[quote name="bcbcbroderick" url="/t/151288/apple-samsung-file-first-joint-set-of-disputed-jury-instructions#post_2147440"]this is torture to the court and them don't no one wanna read all over 300 pages then have to make notes and more on it this is worse then reading a big thick long ass book. id just sue the hell out them every year for copying and stuff  samsung will never go bankrupt, if i was samsung id just be like ok lets save time and money by not selling the things apple goes after us for in the usa anymore instead sell them other places, and be like lets not worry about our phones and tablets much, we have more and better things to sell and worry about like our tv,cd/dvd burners,home things like fregerators and more. samsung has other products to make a good income off of and more. There phones they need to face can't be as good as apples nor there tables, who would want a tablet made of plastic with a plastic screen you have to tap hard as hell on, not me id want the better tablet made by apple with the easy to tap glass screen and metal same for there phones, who would want a gets lots of malware, and hackers, dosent get much exclusive stuff or apps android phone, not me id want the malware free mostly not many hackers after, fast with a way easier app store thats way better apple product and more. If i was samsung id be like we will not sell the phones/tablets apple hates in the usa etc, and will spend more time investing into our other way better then our phones and tablet devices such as our flat screen tvs especially the led ones that are clear, and making them with more hd and better remote controls and more, a tv with built in dvr would be cool, a tv with built in blue ray and would also be cool and more they need to make a better internet tv, one that has a internet browser and allows you to stream movies off web sites and more samsung has way more things they need to worry about and invest in then there phones and tablets, google to google needs to stop worrying so much about apple and worry about there internet search engine and gmail and services that need more investing on them, a favorite sites tab on the google search engine would be cool along with a top tending like twitter and more would be cool just like Facebook the ability to put a background on your profile would be cool if done and more if i was the judge id be like i don't feel like reading all this crap y'all to talk and settle things out try to be friends or at least get along some and stop copying or modifying each others patents instead of requesting so many bans etc just get clear anyone can see prof then sue them for it then use that cash to make something twice as better and more. p.s. before anyone post a reply to this saying something like wow major grammar and punctuation etc mistakes as if they were an english teacher or something i know theres some missed commas etc in this post typed it fast and didn't bother to read over it to correct things was just bored  [/quote] Judge Posner, is that you?

chris_ca 18 Years · 2540 comments

[quote name="bcbcbroderick" url="/t/151288/apple-samsung-file-first-joint-set-of-disputed-jury-instructions#post_2147440"]this is torture ... p.s. before anyone post a reply to this saying something like wow major grammar and punctuation etc...[/quote] Torture is even looking at what you wrote let alone making any attempt to read it.

solipsismx 13 Years · 19562 comments

[quote name="Chris_CA" url="/t/151288/apple-samsung-file-first-joint-set-of-disputed-jury-instructions#post_2147449"] Torture is even looking at what you wrote let alone making any attempt to read it.[/quote] I guess he's just venting and doesn't expect anyone to ready to read what he wrote. Or maybe he just hates paragraphs.