Microsoft/Oracle-paid Anti-Google blogger finds lack of integrity in judge taking expert witness gig with Samsung

Florian Mueller reports that a U.K. Judge in the Samsung-Apple case has now taken on a role as an expert witness for Samsung in another trial. The judge in question, Sir Robin Jacob, will provide expert testimony for Samsung in an upcoming trial. Mueller notes this is legal because he wasn’t really a judge when he handed down his especially harsh verdict to Apple.

As Wikipedia explains, he “retired from the Court of Appeal in March 2011” to become a professor, but under Section 9 of the Senior Courts Act 1981, ex-judges can still be invited to sit on the bench. On that basis, Sir Robin Jacob handled the Samsung v. Apple case that made headline news around the world because it appeared that Apple filed frivolous lawsuits. In a ruling on Apple’s first attempt to comply with the publicity order, Sir Robin Jacob even noted a “lack of integrity”.

For someone so concerned with “integrity” it is utterly unusual to issue a high-profile and extreme ruling in favor of a particular party (Samsung in this case) only to be hired as an expert by that same party in another dispute. But that’s what has happened here, and I wonder how certain people in Cupertino feel about it.

Here’s where it gets sad/hilarious: Florian Mueller is an expert in taking after-trial money from companies involved in trials or “lack of integrity”, as he calls it. Oracle was forced to disclose that it paid Mueller during his “independent” coverage of the Oracle vs. Google trial last year. Indeed, Mueller has a long history of paid lobbying for companies like Microsoft and others that you can read all about at Groklaw, The Verge, and other places.

*Slow Clap* Florian.