People not following the rules kind of trumps everything though, and is the result of a bad jury. Post trial interviews will generally find those though.

For the record, our instructions said that we had to agree that the defendant met both conditions A and B to be found responsible.

We thought he was slightly met the requirements for responsibility due to B, but he didn't meet A at all. Since the instructions said he had to meet BOTH, we returned a verdict of not responsible.

The lawyers from both sides argue/talk with the judge and agree on the instructions. So if one side wasn't happy with it, the lawyer should have said something.

Good thing you've probably never been on jury duty!

For the record, we all did not use any of our expert knowledge. All of us actually listened to the judge and didn't pretend we were above the law. Heck, we even self-threw-out arguments for the verdict on the basis that one would be using expert knowledge.

I very much doubt you can support any of your statements. However, I was actually on jury duty...

They didn't... they only showed them picking up like 3 of them before they said something like "Okay, what's our cost up to now?" I think the ingredients they had picked up so far were pretty generic, flour etc.

Recipes cannot be copyrighted, although the instructions can be.
You can also patent the machines that put together your item, which would also document exactly how to replicate it.

Basically companies that have a 'secret recipe' are taking a risk-reward gamble.
If you can keep it a secret, you don't have to patent it. Patenting would protect it, but it would "start the clock" so to speak. The patent would eventually expire and the documentation would be there plain as day.

The big companies rely on people thinking it's secret and not replicable. KFC's recipe has been known for a long time - KFC even ran ads last year show people collecting ingredients to make KFC chicken but were making a point that it would be cheaper to buy from KFC.

Coca Cola's recipe status I am not sure of but it would not be too hard to replicate. However Coca-Cola has some benefits: the only company that is a threat to them financially (Pepsi) would have no use for the Coca-Cola recipe because Pepsi has built their empire off selling Pepsi, not Coca-Cola. In fact, Pepsi and CC bottle each other's sodas in many locations to save money! In the same respect, CC has no use for the Pepsi formula.

I was on a jury.

The jury has to follow the judge's instructions. You cannot go outside of them. You are not allowed to use your 'expert knowledge' of anything as a juror - anything you argue on with each other has to be based on 'common knowledge'. IE, we can use basic physics as part of me arguing that the car hit the other one really fast, but I could not say they hit each other fast because I know the exact deformation mathematical model of a Ford Taurus.

So yes, the judge sets up the instructions, but the jury ultimately decides it. If you have a judge writing shitty instructions, vote his ass out.

I was sure the web app thing was due to the iPhone being rushed to buy them some time while the SDK got up and running.

Well, thanks to JIT, your waste can be converted into usable fuel for the plant itself, no matter how fast you fill your underwear buffer.

Good thing I can still play Halo 2, which is still running and will run for the forseeable future. Game is 5 years old now, and has two sequels out and another on the way.