Samsung has requested that a judge toss out a recent verdict awarded to Apple as part of an ongoing patent dispute. The Korean company claims jury foreman Velvin Hogan failed to disclose the fact that he filed for bankruptcy in 1993 and had been sued by former employer Seagate Technology.
Samsung says this is significant as the two companies have a strategic partnership with each other. In a request for a new trial, they say Hogan’s failure to mention the lawsuit during jury selection raises issues of bias that they should have been able to explore. Samsung further suggests that he failed to answer questions “truthfully” in order to gain a jury seat.
Hogan denied any misconduct during a phone interview with Bloomberg. He says potential jurors are asked to disclose any litigation they have been involved in within the last 10 years. The Seagate lawsuit took place nearly 20 years ago.
“Had I been asked an open-ended question with no time constraint, of course I would’ve disclosed that,” Hogan said. “I’m willing to go in front of the judge to tell her that I had no intention of being on this jury, let alone withholding anything that would’ve allowed me to be excused.”
The jury foreman said he was surprised that Samsung wasn’t aware of his litigation history and even wondered out loud if the company allowed him on the jury in order to have an excuse for a new trial if things didn’t go their way.
Hogan’s peers elected him foreman based on 35 years of experience in the computer hard drive industry – a role that he claims he didn’t really want to begin with.
There's a lot at stake as Apple was awarded $1.05 billion in damages due to patent infringement.
