The jury in the Apple-Samsung trial continues its deliberations for a third straight day and there are rumors it will reach a quick verdict resolution before the weekend. But you can forget it. The official jury verdict form is forcing the jurors to consider 773 individual infringement claims at issue.
Reporters and others asked at the court asked the lawyers if the jury might hurry through a verdict before the weekend. But if it took a Federal judge with years of experience in IP law three hours to recite and explain the 100-page plus jury instructions, there’s no way a jury composed of mostly non-technical people will get through the verdict form in three days.
The form (attached below) is a dense document that resembles a hellish version of a tax form. It contains 773 individual claims that the jury must check off one-by-one.
The jurors must decide whether individual claims are valid for both the plaintiffs and the defendants and must find a unanimous verdict for each. That means there’s a decision on infringement to be made for each mobile device, and each decision is tied to a final damage figure. And while some phones resemble each other enough in certain features so these decisions could be made in groups, there are enough differences to slow them down. Finally, jurors must decide whether one, two, or all three of the Samsung corporations named in the suit are liable depending on the form. One version of a Galaxy phone, for instance, was dropped by the court from claim consideration because it was never sold or marketed in the U.S.
But perhaps the top reason why the jury is sure to be careful is because it was made aware of the importance of this verdict on the business industry and the competitive market during closing arguments. Both sides highlighted this point and loaded a giant boulder burden of evidence upon their shoulders.
Photo: @boetter/Flickr (CC 2.0)
