Samsung Not Penalized Over Leaking Apple Documents As Judge Says No Misuse In Negotiations

Apple and Samsung have been having legal battles on several fronts in courts around the world for years. Last year, Samsung was able to get hands on some confidential licensing agreements between Apple, Ericsson, and Nokia. Those confidential documents were given to at least 50 Samsung executives and came from attorneys that were given the documents as part of preparatory work for a legal case.

Those documents were never meant to be seen by anyone other than the legal team. The details listed in the documents could have been used by Samsung to gain an advantage in licensing negotiations. The court overseeing the case has now decided to put no sanctions on Samsung over misusing the documents.

The judge says that the information hadn't been misused in the case. The judge says that Samsung couldn't have benefited from the leaked details of Apple negotiations with Nokia or Ericsson. Samsung says that it already knew the terms of the agreement before the documents were leaked.

Samsung says that Ericsson had told it the terms of the agreement in the course of mediations. The court said since no representative from Ericsson or anyone else steeped up to refute Samsung's claims, the court was accepting the explanation. The court said that reimbursement of costs along with public findings of wrongdoing was a sufficient remedy in the case.

SOURCE: Computer World