As the patent battle between Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) begins round two, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is making a concerted effort to go after Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) with claims that it must have access to source code information that is at the heart of its dispute with Samsung, given that Google is responsible for Android.
According to Bloomberg, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) lawyer Mark Lyon said that it is a “question of transparency,” and “we have concerns that they’re [Google’s] not doing a full search.”
Apple vs. Samsung Patent War
The two cases in question are Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) 11-cv-1846, and the second case is Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., 12-cv-630, U.S. District Court, Northern District of California (San Jose).
The first case nearly ended when a jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion after finding that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) infringed six of the iPhone maker’s mobile-device patents. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, correcting what she said was the jury’s error, lowered the damages total to $639.4 million and ordered a new trial in November for a number of the disputed products.
Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), as part of its second patent-infringement lawsuit against Samsung in the same federal court, argues that Android is used in all of Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930)’s allegedly infringing products and “provides much of the accused functionality” in Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL)’s claims, according to a court filing. For this reason, Apple is arguing that it has a right to more information from Google now that pretrial discovery has begun.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has countered with the suggestion that Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) didn’t name Google in the suit in order to impede its rights. Allowing Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) to see documents related to the operating system may lead to “future discovery that we don’t think they’re entitled to,” and “ideas about how to proceed that they wouldn’t have had,” according to Google and Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (LON:BC94) (KRX:005930) lawyer Matthew Warren.
Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) also maintains that by not being named in the suit, that it is being denied “reciprocal discovery.”
For those that are tired of this patent suit, don’t expect it to get any less newsworthy now that a third tech giant has been brought into the fray. Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) is not going to simply lie down and allow Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) access to what it believes is its intellectual property. While the case will have to wait until November expect the discovery battle to provide plenty of fun this summer.
