It strikes me that if people have an issue with much of this, they have an issue with the concept of jury trials.
This guy isn't an expert on tech or on patent law, but the system isn't designed assuming that he is, actually the opposite. Jury trials are meant to put cases in front of 12 ordinary people and have them decide the facts with the judge guiding them through the law. Serving on a jury I (or rather we) were told that he was the judge of the law, it was not for us to interpret that, we were the judge of the facts.
If the jury does or seems likely to do something which contradicts the law then it is for the judge to direct them otherwise. If you believe that that should have happened and hasn't, then your issue is with the judge, not the jury (and here I would suggest saying he doesn't understand the law is probably a long shot, and if Samsung believe this then they will have grounds for an appeal.
But cases are meant to be judged by ordinary people, complete with their flaws and weaknesses, their biases and prejudices and their imperfect understanding because that is the standard the law is held to - the standard that "normal" people (rather than technicians or experts) see as appropriate.
Yes it's an imperfect system, but as with democracy, I'd suggest that it's the least bad system we've tried.
This guy isn't an expert on tech or on patent law, but the system isn't designed assuming that he is, actually the opposite. Jury trials are meant to put cases in front of 12 ordinary people and have them decide the facts with the judge guiding them through the law. Serving on a jury I (or rather we) were told that he was the judge of the law, it was not for us to interpret that, we were the judge of the facts.
If the jury does or seems likely to do something which contradicts the law then it is for the judge to direct them otherwise. If you believe that that should have happened and hasn't, then your issue is with the judge, not the jury (and here I would suggest saying he doesn't understand the law is probably a long shot, and if Samsung believe this then they will have grounds for an appeal.
But cases are meant to be judged by ordinary people, complete with their flaws and weaknesses, their biases and prejudices and their imperfect understanding because that is the standard the law is held to - the standard that "normal" people (rather than technicians or experts) see as appropriate.
Yes it's an imperfect system, but as with democracy, I'd suggest that it's the least bad system we've tried.