Apple V Samsung Judge Asks For CEOs To Start Talking Again

Intel and Apple are working together to ensure that Samsung's key witnesses cannot be called upon in the Samsung v Apple trial. Intel had signed a nondisclosure agreement with Tim Williams, Ph.D, Apple lawyers said, that prohibited him from discussing Intel source code in detail. Samsung called on Williams to discuss Apple's alleged infringement of a cellular data transmission patent, owned by Samsung, in which he would have to cite some of the source code. The judge behind the case, Lucy Koh, weighed in on the subject, demanding that until non-disclosure agreements are signed and proven, Williams cannot start his statement. She argued that she doubted the lawyers, stating "I want papers. I don't trust what any lawyer tells me in this courtroom." The legal case between Samsung and Apple has been going on for a long time, although this legal case, the largest patent case in history, has only been going on for a few weeks. Apple alleges that Samsung has violated design patents in its Galaxy Tab tablets, arguing that they look too similar to the iPad, as well as with the Galaxy S smartphone and the iPhone 3GS. Apple has rested its case as of Monday, and its now up to Samsung to present the legal case. The patent case is certainly big - Apple is suing Samsung for at least $2.5 billion in damages over patent and trademark infringement along with a permanent ban of a Samsung tablet (which had already been banned preliminary) and also ban Samsung smartphones if ruled to be infringing. If that happened, Samsung would be in a lot of trouble - without the U.S. it'd struggle to do nearly as well in the smartphone market. Samsung is trying to invalidate Apple's patents and is also suing Apple for patent infringement, and wants an unspecified amount of damages for the infringement. This lawsuit is the biggest patent infringement lawsuit in history, in terms of the scale of potential damages; neither side wants to lose, so it looks like this secondary CEO meeting won't yield a settlement either.