International Astronomical Union rebukes Mars ‘name-a-crater’ scheme

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International Astronomical Union rebukes Mars ‘name-a-crater’ scheme

Judge rebukes Apple for invoking nationalist bias but denies Samsung a retrial

Judge rebukes Apple for invoking nationalist bias but denies Samsung a retrial
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IDG News Service – A U.S. judge has denied Samsung’s request for a retrial in a patent dispute with Apple, but she also chastised Apple’s lawyers
for making the Korean firm’s “foreignness” an issue in closing remarks to the jury.

The order from Judge Lucy Koh late Friday means a damages award against Samsung of $ 290 million still stands. But she clearly took issue with the way Apple summed
up its case to the jury, saying it suggested an “American-versus-non-American theme.”

The case at the District Court in San Jose, California, is the one in which Apple was initially awarded just over a billion
dollars in damages in August 2012. Koh struck down $ 410 million of the award, partly because the jury hadn’t calculated it
properly, and ordered a new trial to determine the correct damages.

The new trial ended in November with the $ 290 million award to Apple, but Samsung asked for another retrial, in part, it argued,
because Apple’s lawyers had appealed to “racial, ethnic, and national origin prejudice.”

It highlighted portions of Apple’s closing argument in particular.

“When I was young, I used to watch television on televisions that were manufactured in the United States,” an Apple attorney
told the jury. “Magnavox, Motorola, RCA. … They were inventors. They were like the Apple and Google today.

“But they didnt protect their intellectual property,” the Apple attorney said. “They couldnt protect their ideas. And you
all know the result. There are no American television manufacturers today.”

In her order Friday, Koh wrote several times that she found the remarks “troubling.”

“Counsels argument clearly suggested an us-versus-them, American-versus-non-American theme to the jury, which could have evoked
national origin prejudice,” she wrote.

The impact of the remarks is minimized by the “cold transcript,” she wrote,” which “elides counsels strategic and effective
pauses, timed in a way that created silence for listeners to connect the dots and make troubling inferences.”

She also noted the “context of the courtroom,” in which the seats behind the attorneys were “filled with client representatives
with obvious differences in terms of racial and ethnic backgrounds.”

Moreover, Koh wrote, the impact of the remarks must be considered in the wider context of whether juries in the U.S. can “fairly
adjudicate patent disputes between American companies and foreign companies.”

She cited a study which found that in jury trials, the win rates of foreign firms against domestic infringers (38 percent),
are significantly lower than wins by domestic firms against foreign infringers (82%). In contrast, in cases decided by judges
rather than juries, “the patentee win rate is almost identical.”

Despite that, Koh concluded the remarks by Apple’s attorneys did not warrant another trial. The misconduct did not “permeate
the proceedings,” she wrote, but was “confined to a few seconds of the closing argument.” She also found there was no evidence
that the jury had been influenced by the “problematic comments.”

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.

Netflash

Read more about Judge rebukes Apple for invoking nationalist bias but denies Samsung a retrial and other interesting subjects concerning NSA at TheDailyNewsReport.com

WATCH: Stephen Colbert Beautifully Rebukes Coke Ad Controversy

WATCH: Stephen Colbert Beautifully Rebukes Coke Ad Controversy

WATCH: Stephen Colbert Beautifully Rebukes Coke Ad Controversy

Comedy Central"s Stephen Colbert couldn"t agree more. "I mean, if the woman who wrote the song, Katherine Lee Bates, saw this ad, she would be disgusted," said Colbert on his eponymous Report Monday. "And so would her life partner, Katherine Coman, …
Read more on Advocate.com

DAILY SHOW, COLBERT REPORT Announce Staff Promotions

NEW YORK, January 28, 2014 – Emily Lazar has been promoted to Co-Executive Producer of Comedy Central"s(R) "The Colbert Report," it was announced today by Stephen Colbert, Executive Producer, Writer and Host of the program. Lazar formerly served …
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Read more about WATCH: Stephen Colbert Beautifully Rebukes Coke Ad Controversy and other interesting subjects concerning Humor at TheDailyNewsReport.com

U.S. rebukes Israeli minister after ‘offensive’ remarks about ‘messianic’ John Kerry

By Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian
Tuesday, January 14, 2014 14:53 EST

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American efforts to broker a peace deal in the Middle East were engulfed in a diplomatic row on Tuesday when the US state department lambasted a senior Israeli minister for “offensive and inappropriate” comments describing John Kerry as obsessive and messianic.




Defence minister Moshe Ya’alon, an ally of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, dismissed Kerry’s efforts to pursue a peace deal in private conversations with US and Israeli officials which were reported in an Israeli newspaper.




“Secretary of state John Kerry – who arrived here determined, and who operates from an incomprehensible obsession and a sense of messianism – can’t teach me anything about the conflict with the Palestinians,” Ya’alon was quoted as saying in Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel’s biggest-selling paper.




He added: “The only thing that might save us is if John Kerry wins the Nobel Prize and leaves us be.”




In a sharp rebuke to Israel, state department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said: “The remarks of the defence minister, if accurate, are offensive and inappropriate, especially given all that the US is doing to support Israel’s security needs.”




She added: “Secretary Kerry and his team … have been working day and night to try and promote a secure peace for Israel because of the secretary’s deep concern for Israel’s future. To question secretary Kerry’s motives and distort his proposal is not something we would expect from the defence minister of a close ally.”




Other senior Israeli figures, including the prime minister, sought to repair the diplomatic damage. “The US is our largest partner and the partnership is founded on shared values and interests,” Netanyahu said. “Even when there are disagreements between us, they are always substantive and not personal. We work in full co-operation with vice-president [Joe] Biden and secretary of state Kerry to advance peace and security in the region. We stand firm regarding our own interests, while promoting the important connection between our two countries.”




Israel’s president, Shimon Peres, also sought to smooth over the ruckus. “Our deep friendship with the USA is a central component of Israel’s security and a force for the advancement of peace in the region.” he told parliament. “The extraordinary commitment of secretary of state Kerry to the cause of peace reflects Israel’s deep and serious commitment to peace and is creating the opportunity for an agreement and mutual understanding.”




The Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, and justice minister, Tzipi Livni, also swiftly distanced themselves from Ya’alon’s remark.




Ya’alon did not deny the remarks attributed to him. But in a later conciliatory statement, he said relations between Israel and the US were “intimate and very significant for us.The US is our greatest friend and our most important ally; I will keep safeguarding the security of the citizens of Israel resolutely, responsibly and with discretion.”




Kerry is soon expected to make his 11th visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories as part of a determined drive to secure a peace deal to end the decades-old conflict. He has devoted hours to one-on-one meetings with Netanyahu and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, and has won widespread respect for his dogged commitment to his mission.




guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media 2014













The Raw Story



U.S. rebukes Israeli minister after ‘offensive’ remarks about ‘messianic’ John Kerry