Cisco on the Wrong Side of Xenophobia and Anti-Religious Jury Tactics
Update – After thinking reading through this post, it is probably too harsh against Cisco. I was primarily set-off because I read this case involving Cisco's problematic litigation tactics immediately after I read about Cisco's general counsel complaining to Congress about the problematic litigation tactics of patent licensing companies.
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By Dennis Crouch
Foreign litigants often have a real fear of American juries. Back in 2003, Judge Moore (then Professor Moore) authored an interesting article titled Xenophobia in American Courts. In her article, Judge Moore looked at a large dataset of patent cases and found substantial support for the hypothesis that foreign parties are treated worse by juries than their domestic counterparts. This issue has been explored in a number of ways by academics and has parallels to other jury bias issues based upon race or religion. In general, the notion is that it is cognitively easier for people to negatively judge the actions of someone considered an "other."
The recent case of Commil v. Cisco raises some of these issues. And, although Judge Moore was not on the panel, the Federal Circuit agreed that anti-foreign and anti-Semitic tactics before the jury create prejudice that warrant a new trial.
The patentee, Commil, is an Israeli company that filed an infringement suit against Cisco in the Eastern District of Texas. In the first trial, the jury awarded $3.7 million in damages. However, Judge Everingham ordered a new trial based upon the prejudicial effect of "Cisco's counsel's improper religious comments." In the new trial, the jury awarded $63.7 million in damages. On appeal, Cisco asked that the first trial judgment be reinstated. On appeal, however, the Federal Circuit affirmed the new trial finding.
The particular prejudicial are as follows:
- While being cross-examined, Mr. David (the Commil inventor and co-owner) mentioned eating at a barbeque restaurant to which Cisco's counsel responded "I bet not pork." Counsel then went-on to ask Mr. David whether his cousin was a "bottom-feeder who swims around on the bottom buying people's houses that they got kicked out of for next to nothing."
- In closing arguments, Cisco's counsel began with a reference of the trial of Jesus – saying "You remember the most important trial in history, which we all read about as kids, in the Bible had that very question from the judge. What is truth?"
Considering these statements, Judge Everingham wrote:
This argument, when read in context with Cisco's counsel's comment regarding Mr. David and Mr. Arazi's religious heritage, impliedly aligns Cisco's counsel's religious preference with that of the jurors and employs an "us v. them" mentality – i.e., "we are Christian and they are Jewish."
Commil USA, LLC v. Cisco Sys., Inc., No. 2:07–CV–341, slip op. at 3 (E.D.Tex. Dec. 29, 2010).
On appeal, the Federal Circuit found that these actions warranted review and additionally highlighted other aspects from the trial:
For instance, during the voir dire, Commil's counsel explained that the case began in Israel, "the Holy Land for many religions." Later, during closing argument, Commil's counsel argued with respect to damages that Cisco wanted the jurors to "split the baby" and "You know, that wasn't wise at the time of King Solomon. It's not wise today."
Based upon these elements, the Federal Circuit had no trouble finding that the new trial was warranted.
[Updated to delete my harsher remarks]
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The interesting and important legal issue in this case is how the Federal Circuit allowed a partial-new-trial rather than a full trial.
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See also, Hal Wegner, Commil v. Cisco, a Sidebar: Judicial Denunciation of Anti-Semitic Jury Tactics, http://www.laipla.net/commil-v-cisco-a-sidebar-judicial-denunciation-of-anti-semitic-jury-tactics/ .