There’s a price to be paid for serving on a civil jury in a patent dispute — and not just being forced to listen to lawyers drone on about nitty-gritty details. The real price, the jury in this trial being watched around the world is about to find out, is having to prove to the court they’ve been paying attention.
How? As this story from PCWorld details, the jury could face 22 pages of questions to answer, with up to 700 questions. Another take on this comes from Josh Lowensohn of Cnet., whose story includes the proposed questionnaires from both Apple and Samsung.
(Court illustration from Shutterstock)
Because juries have to find the facts, then apply the law as the judge explains it, courts in the U.S. and Canada make civil juries answer a certain number of questions. It’s sort of “if you answer the first question ‘Yes,’ then go to question two. If you answer ‘No’ go to question four….” It’s intended to be a guide for the laymen on the panel who are inexperienced with judicial fact-finding — and to help lawyers on appeal argue the jury’s verdict was inconsistent with the facts they found.
For each of the following products, has Apple proven by a preponderance of the evidence that Samsung Electronics Co. (SEC), Samsung Electronics America (SEA), and/or Samsung Telecommunications America (STA) has infringed Claim 19 of the ‘381 Patent?”
The jury has to answer yes or no for 57 times, for products and for each division.
Final summations are expected to start Tuesday.