Jury seated in Apple versus Samsung trial
updated 09:58 pm EDT, Mon July 30, 2012
Opening arguments begin July 31
After an entire day of examination, the jury is set for the Apple versus Samsung trial. US District Court Judge Lucy Koh spent the entire first day of the trial questioning potential jurors about their lives, technology habits, and professions. Opening statements are expected to commence on Tuesday morning. Seven men and three women were picked for the jury. Jurors were drawn from a wide cross-section of Silicon Valley life, including an insurance agent, a cycling retailer manager, a startup payroll manager, and an unemployed video game enthusiast.
While Google isn't directly involved in the suit, Samsung is a developer of Android-powered smartphones, so the stakes remain high for the Silicon Valley employer. An Apple employee and a Google employee were both dismissed from the jury pool, as well as another jurist who said the case reminded him of the Apple versus Microsoft trial from two decades ago.
Initial legal barrages have led to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and the Galaxy Nexus phone being enjoined from sales, with the Galaxy Nexus being awarded a temporary stay of the injunction, with an affirmation of the stay received earlier today, allowing the phone to continue to be sold through the trial process.
Apple's suit began against Samsung last year for violation of several patents in the Korean manufacturer's Android devices, including the oft-referenced "data tapping" patent, that converts phone numbers and URLs embedded in a text to contextually be used as application-specific links.
Earlier efforts to streamline the trial have been made, with the judge allowing patents dropped from this suit to be asserted at a later date, if needed. Apple attempted to obtain a temporary restraining order against release of the Galaxy S III similar to the ban requested on the Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Tab 10.1, but ultimately failed.
