Samsung Hires British Judge Who Ruled In Their Favor

Remember that case that Apple lost to Samsung in which Apple was ordered to publish a notice correcting the impression left by the trial that Samsung’s Galaxy tablets had copied the iPad? It’s back with a new development.

Apple complied with the order, but in such a snarky, sarcastic way—quoting the judge as saying that Samsung’s devices were “not as cool” as the iPad—that a judge in London’s highest court threw the book at them.

Sir Robin Jacob criticized Apple very strongly, ordering it to pay Samsung’s legal fees on an “indemnity basis” (all possible costs, including parking, phone calls, etc. throughout the case), and spelled out how Apple, with its added language, lied.

“I hope,” Sir Robin wrote in his ruling, “that the lack on integrity involved in this incident is entirely atypical of Apple.”

So what’s new? Samsung has hired him as an expert witness.

“I’m sure that Samsung and Sir Robin Jacob wouldn’t be doing this if there was any risk of this conduct violating the law,” writes Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, who ran into Sir Robin’s name in the expert list in a separate case.

Later, Mueller adds: “For someone so concerned with ‘integrity,’ it is utterly unusual to issue a high-profile and extreme ruling in favor of a particular party (Samsung in this case) only to be hired as an expert by that same party in another dispute.”

This is a very interesting twist, and I’d like to hear what Samsung (and perhaps Sir Jacob) have to say about the ethics of this employment.