Judge judges Nokia-Apple lawsuit, but owns Apple stock
Nokia has launched multiple patent lawsuits against Apple in the past, from 2009 to more recently in 2016, citing infringements by the tech giant on Nokia's original patents. In nearly each case, Nokia turned out right, and Apple ended up paying up in settlements, licensing fees and ongoing royalties over the years.
A recent court filing, however, has revealed an interesting piece of information about one of these multiple legal battles, particularly in 2010. When Nokia first came at Apple for breaching 10 of its patents, Judge William M. Conley of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin presided over the year-long case.
At the same time that Judge William M. Conley was dealing with the case, however, he also owned stock in Apple—a potentially important factor that had been ignored at the time.
Naturally, because this would create a conflict of interest that might impair a judge's right to make an unbiased ruling, proper protocol in such a case requires that the judge withdraw from the case, as per the Code of Conduct for United States Judges (via AppleInsider).
The discovery was brought to Judge Conley's attention only recently, and, taking the matter seriously, on August 27, he sent letters to both Apple and Nokia disclosing what could obviously be considered a conflict of interest at the time of the legal proceedings.
It's highly improbable that the discovery would lead to reopening the case or any further legal action from either of the involved parties, however.
If anything, Nokia got the sweet end of the deal in that case, winning the lawsuit along with a hefty settlement in 2011. If things had ended differently, of course, this would likely have received much more attention than it did this time.
Both Nokia and Apple have until October 27 to speak up if they are interested in addressing the matter of Judge Conley's Apple stockholdings, although that's unlikely.
It's not exactly in Apple's interest, and Nokia's mobile business has since been sold and is currently in the hands of Finnish mobile manufacturer HMD, with different horizons than it had a decade ago.
Judge Conley informed me that it has been brought to his attention that while he presided over the case he owned stock in Apple. His ownership of stock neither affected nor impacted his decisions in this case. —Joel Turner, the court's chief deputy clerk.
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