After the recent ruling in Apple’s favor on that infamous patent case, Samsung asked the court to investigate whether jury foreman Velvin Hogan had concealed information about previous legal situations that would provide basis for an anti-Samsung bias. Naturally, a bias like that could have had a significant impact on the jury’s ruling. Judge Lucy Koh issued a statement that she would be willing to to hear out Samsung’s claims on December 6th. In that statement, she said  ”the Court will consider the questions of whether the jury foreperson concealed information during voir dire [jury selection], whether any concealed information was material, and whether any concealment constituted misconduct. An assessment of such issues is intertwined with the question of whether and when Apple had a duty to disclose the circumstances and timing of its discovery of information about the foreperson.”

That’s important for several reasons. If Apple had learned that Hogan had concealed information, that would be a pretty serious hurdle to jump to uphold that ruling in Apple’s favor. If Samsung succeeds in putting casting enough doubt onto the jury, and can prove that it would’ve changed the outcome of the case, the entire lawsuit will get a retrial, which could possibly swing in Samsung’s favor. After being ordered to pay out over a billion dollars, I can imagine Samsung is really hoping this pans out.

source: The Verge