News/Rumors August 17, 2012

Apple Attorney Got on Judge Lucy Koh’s Nerves

Each day seems to be just a new day for the patents battle between Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics. Even the Federal Judge Lucy Koh got a little irked by the lingering lawsuit between the two tech giants.

Judge Koh lost her temper a bit when Apple’s lawyer presented a document covering 22 potential witnesses that the company might want to call after Samsung’s case introduction. According to The Verge, she asked Apple lawyer when the jury was not in the courtroom, why a 57-page witnesses list was presented “when unless you’re smoking crack you know these witnesses aren’t going to be called!”

Apple attorney William Lee retorted “First, your honor, I’m not smoking crack. I can promise you that.” Even though Apple’s lawyers decided to reduce the witnesses, Judge Koh continued to grow more frustrated as the discussion advanced.

Lucy Koh is a Judge with lot of sense of humor, but it is more than obvious that the length of the trial and the fact that the two parties are not willing to reach to a conclusion soon, is putting her patience to a test. The arrogance of the situation provoked also Judge Paul Grewal to affirm the following:

”At some point the accommodation must end, lest the hundreds of other parties in civil rights, Social Security, and other cases also presently before the undersigned and presiding judge might reasonably ask: what makes the parties in this patent case so special?“

After all, the case between Apple and Samsung is just a fight of smartphones and interfaces patents.