When The Runaway Jury meets The Matrix

A connoisseur of contemporary US literature and cinematography, this Kat is well familiar with John Grisham's classic The Runaway Jury and simulated reality movie The Matrix (which contains one of the great cat scenes of all time, here).  Until recently, however, he had never considered whether there was any point of intersection between the two great cultural icons. Now, following the hugely-publicised billion-dollar patent infringement damages award in the recent Californian trial of Apple v Samsung, pungently depicted by the ever-perceptive Merpel here, he thinks he has his answer.

Some astute readers have pointed various members of the Kat collective in the general direction of an interview given with [warning: real name coming up ...] Velvin R. Hogan, the foreman of the jury which assessed the quantum.  So just how did the jury go about it?

"In the evidence, Apple had declared that Samsung had cost them in profits 35% of their revenue. On the other hand, Samsung said that it is because they took out operating costs and the value is 12%. ... What we did was look at it against our matrix of what infringed and what did not. We determined that in our experience, the percentage was not 12%, and it certainly was not 35%. It should be closer between 13% to 15%. We zeroed in on 14%. That became the magic number. Then we did our own calculations for each of the areas, adding those up with royalties that were entitled for some of the items. And we cut that value in half. When we added them together and tallied them up, that is the number we came up with".

Magic tricks with numbers here, here and here
How to make a billion dollars in one week here
How to look like a billion dollars here