Mass Law Blog

Apple v. Samsung Jury Verdict Form. Huh?

by | Sep 3, 2012

I’ve been meaning to post a link to the jury verdict form in the Apple v. Samsung patent case. Here it is, linked at the bottom of the post. And no, that’s not some weird crossword puzzle on the left, it’s a tiny section of the verdict form.

If this isn’t the most complex jury verdict form in American legal history, I can’t imagine what is. The Verge did a nice job of dissecting the jury verdict form pre-verdict, and concluded that a decision on the approximately 700 decision points would “not go quickly.”

Turns out The Verge was mistaken; the jury was able to wrap things up in just over two days, awarding over $1 billion to Apple. They did this with the help of a jury foreman who had applied for and obtained a patent – the only juror who had even the slightest familiarity with patents before this trial. Do you think his (presumably) pro-patent views influenced the outcome in this case? Did Apple get really, really lucky? Could make a person wonder ….

Jury verdict in Apple v. Samsung (on Groklaw)