Judge Lucy Koh presides over Apple's patent infringement case against Samsung last year.
(Credit: Vicki Behringer)
Despite
Samsung's protestations over "racist" comments by an Apple attorney,
the Korea-based gadget maker has been denied for a second time a
mistrial in a patent-related case.
On Friday, Judge Lucy Koh again admonished Apple's legal team over remarks made last November during closing arguments in the case,
which involved determining the damages Samsung should pay for patent
infringement. But she ruled that the remarks didn't influence the jury's
verdict and that the verdict would stand.
"Particularly in light
of...the high-profile nature of this litigation, the Court expresses its
disapproval and disappointment in the comments that led to the instant
motion," Koh wrote. "Counsel in this case have been exceptionally well
prepared, and the Court has no doubt that counsel carefully chose each
theme before presenting it to the jury in closing arguments."
An
Apple attorney said during the November closing arguments that US TV
manufacturing died because businesses didn't adequately protect their
intellectual property from foreign companies. (Samsung is the world's
largest TV maker.)
"Our economy will disappear," Apple attorney
Harold McElhinny said then. "If the cost of breaking the law is a small
fine...Samsung's copying will have proven successful."
In
requesting a mistrial at the time, Samsung's lawyers said McElhinny's
remarks raised issues about race and outsourcing and could have
prejudiced the jury. But Koh denied the request, instead recalling the
jury members less than half an hour after they were dismissed to begin
deliberations and instructing them to ignore race, a company's national
background, and other issues.
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