Yesterday, a Northern California jury announced their verdict in one of the most highly anticipated decisions of the high technology era: Samsung must pay Apple $1.05 billion in damages for patent infringement.
In that case, Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., both companies alleged numerous patent infringements by the other company. The jury’s verdict clearly indicates that it believed Samsung, not Apple, was the in the wrong here. So what happens next?
A FedEx Office employee who worked at the company for more than two decades sued his employer, claiming that FedEx fired him specifically because he was performing jury duty. (Read the lawsuit below)
Federal law prohibits employers from firing, threatening, intimidating, or coercing any permanent employee who performs jury service.
What makes this lawsuit particularly disturbing is that FedEx not only derives substantial profits from serving the legal community’s document and technology needs, but that the company itself has benefitted directly from America’s jury system.
A juror who tweeted during a murder trial, and while he and his fellow jurors deliberated, led the Arkansas Supreme Court to reverse the conviction of a 26-year-old death row inmate.
While there were other factors that led the court to send the case back for a new trial, the tweets played a key role in its decision.
We’re not talking about a one time tweet either. The juror was a consistent, repeat offender who ignored the trial judge’s jury instructions even before opening statements about the case. He just couldn’t shake the Twitter bird off his back.
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