Apple is fuming over Samsung’s decision to send evidence – deemed inadmissible by the judge in the Apple v Samsung trial – to journalists.
Apple claims that Samsung action was “unethical” and intends to file an emergency motion demanding that Samsung is sanctioned over the matter.
Samsung’s lawyer John Quinn submitted a five-page document, as requested by Judge Koh, claiming that the company’s actions were legal and ethical.
He claims that the submission to the media was in reaction to requests from reporters.
Apple reacted by sending a letter to Judge Koh stating: “Samsung’s multiple references to the jury in its statement make plain its intent that the jurors in our case learn of arguments the court has excluded through the press. This deliberate attempt to influence the trial with inadmissible evidence is both improper and unethical.”
Apple said the court should sanction Samsung by granting judgment in Apple’s favour on its claim that Samsung infringes Apple’s phone design patents, and by granting judgment that those patents are not invalid. Alternately and at a minimum, Apple said, the court should instruct the jury that Samsung engaged in serious misconduct and the court has as a result made a finding that Samsung copied the asserted designs and features from Apple products. The court should also prevent Samsung from further mentioning or offering any evidence regarding the “Sony design exercise” for any purpose, Apple said.
Samsung claimed in the statement issued to the press that the evidence, an email from Apple designer Shin Nishibori referring to “making” a Sony phone and some 2006 Samsung phone designs, “would have established beyond doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design.
Apple has already produced evidence predating the Sony mockups that shows an iPhone-like device that it had produced back in 2005. Judge Koh had already ruled that the evidence should be dropped from the Apple v Samsung case.
Follow Karen Haslam on Twitter / Follow MacworldUK on Twitter
Related:
Samsung gets wrath of judge after leaking so-called ‘evidence’ to the press Samsung’s Sony evidence disqualified by Apple, banned by judge Apple v Samsung: day by day account of patent trial: UPDATED
Author: Karen Haslam, Editor
Macworld editor since 2008, Karen has worked on both sides of the Apple divide, clocking up a number of years at Apple's PR agency prior to joining Macworld two decades ago.
Karen's career highlights include interviewing Apple's Steve Wozniak and discussing Steve Jobs’ legacy on the BBC. Her focus is Mac, but she lives and breathes Apple.