I’ll admit, my first article about Judge Lucy Koh and her handling of the Samsung vs. Apple prize fight may have been a bit presumptuous. Now, she seems to be focusing her cross hairs on Apple and their team of legal henchmen. Yesterday, in a follow up, I reported on how Judge Koh was urging Samsung and Apple to open a dialogue and settle the disputes outside of court. This, I thought, was a major improvement to her enacting strict limitations on Samsung’s ability to defend against the fruit company’s abuse of the legal system.
At first, I had suspected that she had dark motives behind this request. Perhaps she saw that Samsung had a possibility of winning in this dispute thus destroying Apple’s chances at much future litigation. Truthfully, I still assumed that Lucy Koh was another pawn of Steve Job’s fascist juggernaut. However, I felt there was a possibility that she was truly seeking a just and fair judgement.
Today, she exploded at Apple’s Lawyers when they presented a 75 page document outlining testimonies from over 20 witnesses. The problem? Judge Koh has limited each side to 25 hours to make their case. Apple has just 6 hours remaining.
“I am not going to be running around trying to get 75 pages of briefings for people who are not going to be testifying,” U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh told Apple’s lawyer Bill Lee. “I mean come on. 75 pages! 75 pages! You want me to do an order on 75 pages, (and) unless you’re smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren’t going to be called when you have less than four hours.”
Lucy must be waking up on the wrong side of the bed a lot lately. It seems as if she’s been on one tirade after another. For us Android fans, this time is actually welcome. Clearly, the Third Reich Apple is beginning to sweat. They’ve already had their chance to argue, now they’re asking for 20+ witnesses just to rebut Samsung’s testimonies. Were those arguments that strong? Apparently.
On Tuesday, when an Apple lawyer objected to one of Samsung’s expert witnesses, Koh demanded supporting documents and expressed her disdain for the suits in the room, “I don’t trust what any lawyer tells me in this courtroom.”
Maybe I’ve been wrong all this time about the lady. It seemed evident to me that she was going after Samsung with restrictions to hinder their case but it seems she just doesn’t want to be there. She doesn’t want this trial to exist any more than us, the reasonable people who are tired of stupid patent laws. Maybe, just maybe Judge Lucy Koh does have a sense for justice.
And just maybe, she’s realized that this time, justice has no place in the courtroom.