British judge who ruled in favour of Samsung against Apple in patent lawsuit has new job - with Samsung

Lord Justice Jacob at his swearing in as Lord Justice of Appeal: He has been hired by Samsung as an expert witness in a patent dispute

The appeals-court judge who forced Apple to make a high profile apology to Samsung has been hired by the South Korean firm as an expert witness in its latest patent dispute.
Sir Robin Jacob will testify on behalf of Samsung during the US International Trade Commission investigation into the company's patent dispute with Ericsson.
The retired judge, who is now a professor of law at University College, London, made headlines last year when he accused Apple of a 'lack of integrity'.
It came the Silicon Valley said it would take them two weeks to properly comply with a court order that it publish a notice that it had lost an earlier legal fight with Samsung.
Sir Robin's involvement with Samsung has raised eyebrows in the legal world. Such expert witnesses are often paid thousands of dollars for appearances.
Florian Mueller, a patent blogger and intellectual property consultant, who first spotted Sir Robin’s name in the case in filings to the ITC, said the involvement with Samsung's latest patent dispute 'just doesn't feel right'.
'For someone so concerned with 'integrity' it is utterly unusual to issue a high-profile and extreme ruling in favour of a particular party ... only to be hired as an expert by that same party in another dispute,' he said.
He added: 'It gives the impression that a judge who deals Samsung's number one rival a huge PR blow, in a way that I found very extreme and unjustified, will be generously rewarded.
'For that reason alone, I think both Samsung and Sir Robin Jacob should not have done this.
'What would people say if Judge Lucy Koh, a few months after denying Apple a permanent injunction against Samsung, returned to private practice and was hired as an "expert" by Samsung in a German litigation with Ericsson?'

In November last year, Sir Robin was one of three Court of Appeal judges who ordered Apple to alter a statement on its website acknowledging it had lost a legal dispute with Samsung over the Galaxy Tab.
Apple had complained that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was too similar to its iPad.

 

An Apple iPad (left) is displayed next to Samsung's Galaxy tab: A High Court judge ruled the Galaxy Tab was not 'cool' enough to be confused with Apple's iPad - a decision upheld on appeal

But a judge at the High Court in London ruled last July that the Samsung Galaxy Tab was not 'cool' enough to be confused with Apple's iPad - a decision upheld on appeal.
In the subsequent litigation, Samsung said Apple had on October 26 published a notice on its website acknowledging defeat - in 'purported compliance' with a Court of Appeal order.
But the firm complained that Apple had added an account of court proceedings in Germany and the United States which was 'inaccurate and misleading'.
Judges agreed. 'What Apple added was false and misleading,' Sir Robin said in a subsequently published written decision.
'There is a false innuendo that the UK court's decision is at odds with decisions in other countries whereas that is simply not true.'

 

Order: The final statement that Apple linked to on the homepage of their website in the UK

 

Bad Apple: The original notice posted on Apple's website, which a court said did not comply with its orders

He added that Apple bosses had shown a 'lack of integrity' by saying staff would need two weeks to make 'minor changes' to the company website - and gave them 48 hours to comply.
The court also ordered Apple to run a newspaper advert with the amended text telling the public of the ruling that Samsund had not infringed its patents.
In a written statement to the Financial Times, a Samsung spokesman defended Sir Robin's appointment as an expert witness for the company's latest intellectual property dispute.
'Sir Robin Jacob is not a legal representative of Samsung Electronics,' the spokesman said.
'A highly reputed intellectual property expert and academic, Sir Robin has been contracted as an expert by a law firm that represents Samsung Electronics in its case against Ericsson.'