From Florian Mueller’s patent blog:
Three months ago I saw a filing by Nokia that related to some discussions with Samsung considered so secretive that it wanted even the very title of a document to be sealed. It was clear that Nokia and Samsung were talking about something that also related somehow to the 2011 Nokia-Apple settlement, about the terms of which nothing was known except that Apple described it, at a very high level, as “merely a ‘provisional license’ for a limited ‘standstill’ period”. One could figure that Nokia and Samsung wouldn’t talk about some other patent agreement without talking about some sort of patent deal between them — a license or an outright purchase.
On Wednesday evening local time, Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, whose writing style is well-liked by various patent litigation watchers including me, entered an order that finally sheds light on this. The order came down after a hearing held yesterday on a request by Apple (and possibly also one by Nokia) for sanctions against Samsung (and/or its outside counsel) for violation of a protective order, i.e., for illegal disclosure of (in this case, extremely) confidential business information.
I must say that I’m shocked.
The big question here is this:
So how did Samsung’s executives get access to contracts that were meant to be used only by its outside counsel (marked as “Highly Confidential — Attorneys’ Eyes Only”) for the purposes of litigation with Apple and absolutely positively not for the pupose of gaining unfair advantages in licensing negotiations with anyone (not with Apple, and much less with third parties like Nokia), when such disclosure would constitute an unbelievably serious violation of court rules?
It will be interesting to see how this plays out. These are pretty serious accusations.
Sanctions from the court should come in the form of a damages multiple in the damages phase of the trial.
How slimy can one company get? They’re just oozing out the pores with venom. Complete scoundrels. I never put anything past Samsung and their desperation, but this is just pathetic. No regard for the law, no regard for ethics. They truly have no taste, not just in products, but for how to operate a respectable company.
Sadly, the American media fails to report on real scandals like this. They’re too busy talking about iPads getting warm under heavy load, or figuring out how to spin record sales/update numbers as being doom for the company. Isn’t it funny how the American public demonizes their hometown star and puts the foreign crooks up on a pedestal?
Samsung is a great example of unregulated capitalism.
Didn’t Apple give Samsung the info?
‘Give’ is putting it lightly. It was demanded from them by Samsung via court order under the strict protective order that only the Samsung Attorneys can see them.
And now they’re flaunting it in a meeting with Nokia’s negotiator and even dropped a bomb pretty much saying “Our legal teams tells us everything – so don’t even bother pretending”
I think that’s the very rough gist of it.
I’d rather think its not that. Unregulated capitalism would be closer to MSFT and AAPL pushing the boundaries as far as they can get – and occasionally getting burnt for it.
This is just blatant disregard for regulations. Its closer to what oil companies do IMHO – drill now and pay off the lawsuits later.
Fair point.