We have been critical of Judge Lucy Koh for seemingly biased views towards Apple in many of the patent cases that have crossed her bench. Most recently we were appalled to see her go from a stance of not enough evidence of irreparable harm to a full preliminary ban on sales of the Galaxy Tab. This has prompted more than one person to complain and also to question her ability to properly discharge her duties. Apparently more than a few people are feeling the same way as a petition to have her “impeached” and removed from her position.We were informed of this by a forum member how posted the link just this morning. The petition is pretty straight forward and deals directly with her recent decisions between Apple and Samsung. It is almost unheard of to grant a Ban on a product yet, that is what Judge Koh has done for two Samsung products back to back with little evidence of harm to Apple.
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“Impeach US District Judge Lucy Koh Greetings, I just signed the following petition addressed to: Voters.---------------- Impeach US District Judge Lucy Koh Lucy Koh happens to be the US district judge that has been constantly granting Apple patent injunctions, including the most controversial one of all: the preliminary injunction against Galaxy Nexus sales that is making headlines around the world. She needs to be replaced with someone who is less biased. ---------------- Sincerely,” |
If they can reach the 600,000 signatures needed this would be forwarded to the Judicial Ethics Board. They would review the complaint and look for signs of unethical behavior in the rulings that Jude Koh has handed down. The problem is that while the process is very straight forward actually proving unethical behavior might not be. As judges are granted license to interpret the law there is concern that even with what appears to be biased behavior the Ethics Board might not see it that way.
Still in this case there is perhaps more than a good chance that Judge Koh’s actions are biased and are preventing her from performing her duties in the case of Apple V Samsung. Even if the petition does not go through there is still the chance that Samsung will prevail in the Federal Appeals court where they have already filed a motion to have both bans thrown out and the rest of the case reviewed on the actual merits.
Now what we would like to see is the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s petition to Congress get more attention so that the actual Patent and Trademark system can be over hauled and the majority of these case not happen in the first place. After all as we have said more than once, in cases like these where there is obvious abuse of the patent system to hinder competition it is the consumer that ends up getting hurt.
If you think that at the very least Judge Koh's actions need to be investigated then head over and sign the petition.
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