Apple: Samsung Ignored Court Order to Provide Source Code

In the latest development of Apple and Samsung’s ongoing patent litigation, the Cupertino company has accused its rival of violating a court order by refusing to fully divulge its products’ source code. The U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose ordered Samsung to provide Apple with the source code for nine features found on its devices by December 31 so that any claims of patent infringement could be analyzed.

In a filing last Friday, Apple claims that Samsung has failed to abide by that order by providing the source code from just a single product for each disputed feature. Apple argues that Samsung must provide the source code for all products that utilize the features while Samsung claims that the code does not materially differ between its products and that one product’s worth of code is enough to satisfy the judicial order.

Samsung vs Apple Patent Litigation

Apple vs. Samsung

As expert reports in the case are due in less than two weeks, Apple has stated that it is too late for the company’s experts to analyze the missing source code even if Samsung were to now provide it. The Cupertino company’s filing therefore argues that Samsung should be barred from relying on any of the source code it failed to produce when defending its infringement claims. 

Apple, which must currently develop separate cases against each supposedly infringing Samsung product, is also using Samsung’s inaction to call for the court to consider each product that Samsung did provide source code for to be “representative of all versions of that product.”

The Northern District of California case is just one of several around the world between the two consumer electronics companies, with a new case filed by Samsung in South Korea last week to compliment existing litigation in Germany and Australia. The contentious legal battle stems from an April 2011 lawsuit filed by Apple claiming that Samsung’s Galaxy line of products infringed on many Apple patents.

The California trial date for Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 11-01846, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose) has been set for August 25, 2012.

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