Federal judge denies Apple motion for sanctions over evidence disclosure News
Federal judge denies Apple motion for sanctions over evidence disclosure
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[JURIST] Judge Lucy Koh of the US District Court for the Northern District of California [official website] on Friday denied [Mercury News report] a motion filed by Apple [corporate website] requesting that the court sanction Samsung Electronics [corporate website], and declare an immediate victory in the patent infringement trial. Apple filed the motion with Koh, accusing Samsung of “litigation misconduct” [JURIST report], after Samsung publicly released evidence that Koh had explicitly excluded from trial. Koh had barred Samsung from presenting images of an in-development smartphone from 2006 because the evidence was not disclosed in a timely manner in Samsung’s patent infringement arguments. Samsung then emailed the excluded evidence to reporters later that day. Apple contends that the release was designed to convey to jurors, through the media, arguments rebutting Apple’s central allegations that Samsung copied the iPhone and iPad. Apple is seeking $2.5 billion for its claims that Samsung infringed patents covering designs and technology for the mobile devices. In June Koh issued an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung blocking the sale of the Galaxy 10.1 tablet computer while the patent infringement case is litigated. That injunction was upheld on appeal [JURIST report] in late July. The trial began on July 30.

Apple and Samsung have been embroiled in continuous patent litigation in courts around the world. In July a UK court ruled [JURIST report] that Samsung tablets do not infringe on Apple’s design. Earlier in July a federal judge issued an injunction [JURIST report] against Samsung to stop the sale of its Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the US. A week earlier the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit had rejected [Bloomberg report; CAFC notice] Samsung’s appeal of the decision that remanded the case to the district court giving Apple another opportunity to ban Samsung’s Galaxy products in the states after it partially reversed [JURIST report] the district court’s refusal to grant a temporary injunction for Apple against Samsung. Apple’s request for a temporary injunction was denied [JURIST report] by the district court in December. Apple filed a suit [JURIST report] against Samsung in April of last year alleging that Samsung committed ten patent infringements, two trademark violations and two trade dress violations by copying iPhone and iPad technology in making its “Galaxy” products. In June, the District Court of The Hague ruled [JURIST report] in favor of Samsung against Apple holding that Apple was liable for infringing upon one of the Korean company’s four patents, a 3G patent.

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