Apple Details 2010 Patent Negotiations Held With Samsung – Met 4 Times Before Going “Thermonuclear War”
Here’s an interesting story from the guys at TheVerge. We’ve all heard or read about the long, drawn out fight-to-the-death patent lawsuits from Apple and Samsung. It got so bad that we just stopped reporting on them (unless it was a major development/ruling). Well, back when the Apple vs. Samsung lawsuits first hit our desks, we heard from Apple that they actually reached out to Samsung before ever going to court, letting them know of their alleged patent infringement. Samsung, of course, denied these claims and left it at that.
Well, in a recent filing, Apple actually detailed these supposed “negotiations that never happened” that occurred between July and September of 2010. According to Apple, there were 4 meetings in which both Apple flew out to Korea, and Samsung was brought to Cupertino where the 2 sides sat down with one another. Allegedly, these meetings (presumably, with tension so thick, you could cut it with a knife) are where Apple presented Samsung with photos, charts and diagrams on exactly which patents Apple felt Samsung was infringing upon. Here’s a little excerpt from that federal court filing:
On or about August 4, 2010, Apple representatives met with Samsung in Korea and showed a presentation titled ‘Samsung’s Use of Apple Patents in Smartphones.’ This presentation emphasized Samsung’s copying of the iPhone and identified two of the patents-in-suit (the ‘002 and ‘381 patents), giving Samsung actual notice of at least these patents, and many more.
On or about August 26, 2010, Apple sent Samsung an electronic archive file containing claim charts further illustrating Samsung’s infringement of Apple patents. A presentation document that accompanied these claim charts identified the ‘002 and ‘381 patents as two patents that Samsung products infringed, and it substantiated these allegations with text from the patents and photographs of Samsung devices illustrating infringing functionality. Apple later presented these slides to Samsung at a meeting in Cupertino, California on or about September 9, 2010.
For a hellbent Jobs, aimed at destroying Android, he seemed rather civil in his talks with Samsung. What do you guys think? Could Apple really have been the good guy, trying to settle things peacefully while Samsung gave them the middle finger? Say it ain’t so. Or maybe Jobs’ demands were so out there and unrealistic, Samsung was forced to flip the table and storm out of the meeting. Thoughts?