Although the sizzling patent dispute between Samsung and Apple will ultimately be decided by a carefully selected jury of ten, the most powerful person in the San Jose courtroom is still Judge Lucy Koh. Already Judge Koh has issued preliminary injunctions against two of Samsung’s flagship products, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. On the opening day of this week’s trial, Koh screened 74 potential jurors, asking them what phones and tablets they owned, whether they had ever worked at Apple, Samsung, Google or Motorola, and whether they owned stock in those companies.
Lucy Koh is a 42-year-old California Democrat, a graduate of Harvard Law School, and the first U.S. District Court Judge of Korean descent. She represented technology companies in patent, trade secret, and commercial civil matters until 2008, when former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed her to the bench of the Superior Court of California in Santa Clara. Then in 2010 President Obama nominated her for current position, U.S. District Court Judge, Northern District of California. Koh received her B.A. from Harvard-Radcliffe and her J.D. from Harvard, and is married to a Stanford law professor. (Judge Lucy Koh is also one of RCR’s Top 10 Women in Wireless for 2012.)
Lucy Koh made headlines earlier this year when she held two tablets above her head in her courtroom. One was an iPad and the other was a Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Koh asked Samsung’s lawyers which tablet was which and the response was not immediate – apparently the lawyers had a hard time distinguishing their client’s product from Apple’s. Yesterday the Korean company’s lawyers reportedly joked with a potential juror who said she wanted to buy an iPad, but they know the case is very serious for both of the companies involved. Smartphones and tablets represented 73% of Apple’s sales in its most recent quarter, and 43% of Samsung’s sales. Apple is demanding $2.52 billion in damages from Samsung, saying that the company has cut into its profits by infringing on its patents. Samsung is countersuing Apple, and asking the Cupertino company to pay higher royalties for the use of Samsung’s “standards-essential” patents – patented technology that enables smartphones to meet connectivity standards.
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