Lucy Koh is chewing someone out again.
According to CNET,
"Anyone following the Apple v. Samsung patent trial has noticed the frequency with which Koh, the U.S. district judge presiding over the case, has scolded lawyers from both sides.
The most vivid example came last week, when Apple lawyers notified Koh that they wished to cram a large number of witnesses into the remaining few hours they had to make their arguments. This would have added to the mountain of paperwork and generated more work for Koh and her staff.
"Come on," Koh told Bill Lee, one of Apple's lawyers. "You want me to do an order on 75 pages? Unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."
The news media went wild. Typically, judges don't sound this informal. Koh, however, is not a typical judge and Apple v. Samsung is not the typical patent case.
Rookie judge
For starters, Koh is only 43, on the youngish side for a district judge, and not very experienced. She has been a federal judge for two years. Before that, she served two years as a California Superior Court judge in Santa Clara, Calif.
So as Koh prepares today to oversee final arguments in the case, a couple questions one might ask are these: did she know what she was doing, and did she mess anything up? The only things hanging in the balance are billions of dollars and possibly the future of the mobile phone and tablet businesses.
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Apple claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that Samsung pilfered design ideas and some of the technology behind the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denied this and later filed its own suit alleging Apple infringed on some of its patents. Both sides want damages and if Apple wins, the company will want the court to force Samsung to cease the sale in the United States of the infringing phones and tablets.
The challenge for Koh was to ride herd over two famous and massive companies and their legion of attorneys -- some with equally massive egos. Naturally, with so much at stake, both sides would try to test the rules and she would need to keep them in line. If she was intimidated, she never showed it.
When John Quinn, founder of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, one of the country's best known law firms, rose to request that Koh reverse an earlier decision to exclude some of Samsung's evidence, the two got into a confrontation. But she stood her ground, told the lawyer the issue had been covered and demanded he knock it off.
"Mr. Quinn, don't make me sanction you, please," Koh said. "I want you to sit down!"
Strangely, Koh isn't nearly as tough talking when she's not wearing the robe, say people who know her.
"When you meet her outside of the courtroom, she comes across as shy," said Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University as is Koh's husband, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar. "You don't expect her to be a tough courtroom presence but she's been every bit of that in the couple years she's been on the bench."
Is Koh biased?
In her legal career, Koh has done plenty of unexpected things. She's the first Korean-American to serve as a federal district judge and prior to that, she was a patent litigator. Legal experts say that it's rare for a patent litigator to be appointed to a district judgeship.
Koh handled patent and trade secret litigation for tech companies when she was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in the mid 2000s. This part of her background raises the question that fans of Apple and Samsung have asked since the trial started: Is Koh biased? Does she have it in for one company or the other?
According to CNET,
"Anyone following the Apple v. Samsung patent trial has noticed the frequency with which Koh, the U.S. district judge presiding over the case, has scolded lawyers from both sides.
The most vivid example came last week, when Apple lawyers notified Koh that they wished to cram a large number of witnesses into the remaining few hours they had to make their arguments. This would have added to the mountain of paperwork and generated more work for Koh and her staff.
"Come on," Koh told Bill Lee, one of Apple's lawyers. "You want me to do an order on 75 pages? Unless you're smoking crack, you know these witnesses aren't going to be called."
The news media went wild. Typically, judges don't sound this informal. Koh, however, is not a typical judge and Apple v. Samsung is not the typical patent case.
Rookie judge
For starters, Koh is only 43, on the youngish side for a district judge, and not very experienced. She has been a federal judge for two years. Before that, she served two years as a California Superior Court judge in Santa Clara, Calif.
So as Koh prepares today to oversee final arguments in the case, a couple questions one might ask are these: did she know what she was doing, and did she mess anything up? The only things hanging in the balance are billions of dollars and possibly the future of the mobile phone and tablet businesses.
RelatSed stories
Apple, Samsung CEOs speak but fail to reach settlement
Jury won't hear about Apple and Samsung's lost e-male: Samsung's Galaxy Nexus a copycat of iP
Apple claimed in a lawsuit filed last year that Samsung pilfered design ideas and some of the technology behind the iPhone and iPad. Samsung denied this and later filed its own suit alleging Apple infringed on some of its patents. Both sides want damages and if Apple wins, the company will want the court to force Samsung to cease the sale in the United States of the infringing phones and tablets.
The challenge for Koh was to ride herd over two famous and massive companies and their legion of attorneys -- some with equally massive egos. Naturally, with so much at stake, both sides would try to test the rules and she would need to keep them in line. If she was intimidated, she never showed it.
When John Quinn, founder of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan, one of the country's best known law firms, rose to request that Koh reverse an earlier decision to exclude some of Samsung's evidence, the two got into a confrontation. But she stood her ground, told the lawyer the issue had been covered and demanded he knock it off.
"Mr. Quinn, don't make me sanction you, please," Koh said. "I want you to sit down!"
Strangely, Koh isn't nearly as tough talking when she's not wearing the robe, say people who know her.
"When you meet her outside of the courtroom, she comes across as shy," said Mark Lemley, a law professor at Stanford University as is Koh's husband, Mariano-Florentino Cuéllar. "You don't expect her to be a tough courtroom presence but she's been every bit of that in the couple years she's been on the bench."
Is Koh biased?
In her legal career, Koh has done plenty of unexpected things. She's the first Korean-American to serve as a federal district judge and prior to that, she was a patent litigator. Legal experts say that it's rare for a patent litigator to be appointed to a district judgeship.
Koh handled patent and trade secret litigation for tech companies when she was a partner at McDermott Will & Emery in the mid 2000s. This part of her background raises the question that fans of Apple and Samsung have asked since the trial started: Is Koh biased? Does she have it in for one company or the other?
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