Samsung to Depose Jony Ive and Other Apple Designers, Seeks iPhone 4S Source Code

[MacRumors]

The legal battle between Apple and Samsung continues to rage in a number of different countries, and Samsung is going on the offensive with recent attempts to obtain testimony from Apple senior vice president Jony Ive and other designers, as well as to receive access to the iPhone 4S source code and the detail of Apple's agreements with carriers in Australia.

Samsung's planned depositions of Ive and Apple designers Doug Satzger, Shin Nishibori, and Christopher Stringer are part of the U.S. proceedings, with the testimony originally scheduled to be taken by November 1st. But due to scheduling conflicts and other issues, Samsung has filed a motion seeking to extend the timeframe until December 1st. From the motion:

Mr. Satzger is a former Apple employee represented by separate counsel. He is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because, during the month of October, his lawyer has a full deposition schedule in a separate class action matter.

Mr. Nishibori is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because he currently is on a voluntary leave of absence from Apple.

Mr. Ive is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 for personal reasons.

Mr. Stringer is unable to sit for deposition before November 1 because of work and scheduling conflicts.

Meanwhile, ZDNet reports on Samsung's legal request to have sales of the iPhone 4S banned in Australia, an effort that has seen the company seek access to the iPhone 4S source code and Apple's specific agreements with Australian carriers in order to make its full case before the court.

In particular, Samsung is keen to find out the amounts of subsidies paid by Telstra, Optus and Vodafone to Apple for selling the iPhones on plans.

[Samsung lawyer Cynthia Cochrane noted:] "If subsidies [are] given for the iPhone 4S, there are less to go around for my client's products."

...

[Apple lawyer Cameron] Moore also claimed that because Qualcomm developed the baseband chip in the iPhone 4S -- the Qualcomm MDM6610 -- and had licence agreements in place for Samsung patents, these agreements would apply to the iPhone 4S. Cochrane said that Samsung experts would need to see the source code for the iPhone 4S firmware to see how the chip interacts with the rest of the phone to determine whether the company's patent is being infringed.

Apple will certainly not give up the requested information willingly, viewing the source code and legal agreements as proprietary information. The judge in the case is Annabelle Bennett, who had previously awarded Apple an injunction barring the sale of Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia and is now being asked to rule on a similar request from the other side.

Article Link: Samsung to Depose Jony Ive and Other Apple Designers, Seeks iPhone 4S Source Code

 

[DrJohnnyN]

Just give it up Samsung.

 

[MorphingDragon]

Accessing iOS source code seems a bit far doesn't it?

Troll Response: Here it is Samsung - http://opensource.apple.com/release/ios-50/

 

[applefan289]

Samsung is pathetic.

 

[voonyx]

LOL...WTH. Samsung's legal strategy is pretty funny.

 

[kcamfork]

Why are they even trying? They know they're going to lose. Again.

 

[decimortis]

source code request?
Apple should just respond with: 42

D.

 

[MacFan1957]

Balls!

Of steel that is! That's not to say that I admire Samsung because I don't, I loathe them!

 

[marksman]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

Why do samsungs lawyers always come across poorly and ham handed?

 

[anotonin]

Its November 2, 2011. They can proceed with the hearings now.

This will be entertaining and educational. Get your Ipads (lol) ready.

 

[Sackvillenb]

Oh what a tangled web we weave.... business in 2011 = lawyers.

 

[Northgrove]

I don't even know why they want the source code? I thought this was about "likeliness" of product designs and interfaces. Implementation details shouldn't help there. Or maybe I'm not following this case well enough.

 

[dashiel]

Why are they even trying? They know they're going to lose. Again.

Maybe they’re hoping Jony Ive will accidentally slip about the ID of the iPhone 5.

 

[DavidLeblond]

If they do have to give up the source code they should send it through an obfuscator first and then say "What, you can't read it? Well that's how our programmers write. They're THAT awesome."

 

[MacFan1957]

I don't even know why they want the source code? I thought this was about "likeliness" of product designs and interfaces. Implementation details shouldn't help there. Or maybe I'm not following this case well enough.

Be honest, you only read the headline, didn't you?

 

[anotonin]

I don't even know why they want the source code? I thought this was about "likeliness" of product designs and interfaces. Implementation details shouldn't help there. Or maybe I'm not following this case well enough.

Likeness of the product designs could mean the same source code. Like even the misspelled word could be found in both the Apple code and the Samsung code.

 

[Custommm]

Pathetic

Samsung and their lies are not going to get my money.... Not for smartphones nor for my new tv set (planning to buy this November) no!
Samsung.... What have you done so great lately? Yeah just Ripping off others idea!

 

[dokujaryu]

Just as soon as you give us the sourcecode for your supposedly open source Android 3.0 and 4.0.

KTHXBAI.

Samsung and their lies are not going to get my money.... Not for smartphones nor for my new tv set (planning to buy this November) no!
Samsung.... What have you done so great lately? Yeah just Ripping off others idea!

Yeah. I think I'm going to support Japan and buy a Sony instead. It actually kinda pisses me off I already own two samsung plasmas lol.

 

[Popeye206]

Stalling, stalling, stalling.... the game continues.

With all the parts that Samsung supplies for Apple, they should just merge and take over the world together!

But reality... I don't see the cultures mixing... too different in too many area's.

 

[JAT]

It really gets confusing which sentence is about which case in all these stories. Deposing Ive must be about Apple's lawsuit on design, whereas I don't know what he'd have to say about Samsung's attempt to block iPhone sales over cell technology patents.

Really is time for a lawsuit tab at MR.

 

[anotonin]

If they do have to give up the source code they should send it through an obfuscator first and then say "What, you can't read it? Well that's how our programmers write. They're THAT awesome."

Isn't that tampering of evidence? Or obstruction of justice? Any lawyers here to give us some insights into this matter?

 

[Popeye206]

Samsung and their lies are not going to get my money.... Not for smartphones nor for my new tv set (planning to buy this November) no!
Samsung.... What have you done so great lately? Yeah just Ripping off others idea!

Actually... I love their TV's... IMHO, some of the best ones out there and easiest to use. It's the one area Samsung really does well.

 

[voonyx]

Isn't that tampering of evidence? Or obstruction of justice? Any lawyers here to give us some insights into this matter?

In the legal environment, it's known as a joke.

 

[pdjudd]

Isn't that tampering of evidence? Or obstruction of justice? Any lawyers here to give us some insights into this matter?

IANAL, but that does sound suspiciously like tapering with evidence. Obstruction of justice is more of a criminal law versus civil law.

 

[anotonin]

Stalling, stalling, stalling.... the game continues.

With all the parts that Samsung supplies for Apple, they should just merge and take over the world together!

But reality... I don't see the cultures mixing... too different in too many area's.

Wait, Samsung bought Motorola who still supplies parts to Apple. Am I getting this right? Or I'm misguided?