Apple Loses Bid to Keep Customer Survey Secret

All things Digital ^ | 081612 | Ina Fried

[Fred]

The judge overseeing Apple’s patent lawsuit against Samsung said Apple can’t keep secret a marketing survey it took of its customers.

Apple argued that the survey’s release would aid competitors, as the data is not available elsewhere.

“It’s plainly a trade secret,” Apple’s lawyer told the court. “There’s no reason for a document to come into evidence in its entirety.”

Judge Lucy Koh disagreed, but allowed Apple time to file an appeal.

“I’m denying your request to seal today, so take it up on appeal,” Koh said.

Meanwhile, in another hotly contested issue, Koh said she was denying Apple’s request for sanctions against Samsung for a press release that made reference to evidence that Koh had excluded, and said that it was information the jury needed to know.

[Parmy]

Seems to me that the last time Apple went to court to protect a patent (Microsoft Windows) they lost.

Perhaps it would be best for Apple to just stay out in front of the competition and let the others to copy-cat things.

[John Valentine]

Meanwhile, in another hotly contested issue, Koh said she was denying Apple’s request for sanctions against Samsung for a press release that made reference to evidence that Koh had excluded, and said that it was information the jury needed to know.

Can I just point out that this sentence makes no sense at all?

On its face, this has the judge saying that she had excluded information that the jury "needed to know". And that she would not sanction Samsung for releasing this excluded information to the press for that very reason.

Say, what?

[Izzy Dunne]

I wondered about that, too. Bad journalism, I suppose.