Patent Law Practice Center

Federal Judge Posner to Use Court Appointed Experts in Apple v. Motorola

The patent litigation between Apple and Motorola has been stand out case among the many involving mobile device technology.  The matter of Apple Inc. and NeXT Software Inc. v. Motorola, Inc., is occurring in varying districts of the United States as well as in several European courtrooms.  The litigation of the case in the Northern District of Illinois, Eastern District, appears to be the most watched within the United States. Federal Judge Richard Posner, who sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit in Chicago, Illinois,volunteered to preside over the District Court trial. This move originally drew some attention as Judge Posner is of a quite distinguished status to be overseeing a jury trial.

In his March 10, 2012 Order, Judge Posner noted that his concern, “is that many of the proposed claims constructions are not in language intelligible to jurors…There is no point in giving jurors stuff they won’t understand.”

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