Apple met with Samsung 4 times in 2010 trying to avoid patent litigation

Prior to filing suit against Samsung for alleged copyright infringement, Apple approached its rival four times in 2010 in an attempt to avoid resorting to litigation.

Details of the meetings between Apple's and Samsung's lawyers were revealed in an Apple court filing discovered by The Verge. The first meeting took place in July 2010, and Apple soon after made three more attempts to broker a deal with Samsung to no avail.

The meetings took place both at Apple's corporate headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., as well as in Samsung's home country of Korea. At one meeting in Korea in August of 2010, Apple representatives showed a presentation to Samsung officials entitled "Samsung's Use of Apple Patents in Smartphones," detailing its belief that Samsung was infringing on two patents.

Last year, it was first revealed that late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs contacted Samsung in 2010 in an attempt to resolve the patent dispute between the two companies. But the extent of talks between Apple and Samsung was not known until Apple disclosed it in court.

Apple eventually sued Samsung in April of 2011, accusing its rival of copying the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad with its own smartphone and tablet products. Samsung quickly fired back with its own accusations, and the two companies are now involved in lawsuits that spread across four continents.

Details on three of the meetings between Apple and Samsung, as portrayed in Apple's filing in California federal court, are included below:

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.

Follow AppleInsider on Google News

32 Comments

i am a zither zather zuzz

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

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.

Do I remember correctly that Apple was made to remove many patents from this lawsuit? I wonder if they came to Samsung with a bushel of nebulous claims and demands which were not really taken seriously? Maybe an even bigger bushel than they could (with a straight face) file in court? IIRC, Apple was ordered to drop most of their patent claims, and to winnow it down to the real ones.

Seemingly, two are left? Is that correct? The only two real ones?

Sammy should propose a reasonable settlement and move on. But maybe they already have and Apple said "We don't want your money - we want you to stop using our stuff?

iqatedo

said about 12 years ago

Samsung was so desperate to appropriate Apple's design cues and the look and feel of Apple's products that they were willing to risk litigation. Doesn't alter the fact that they are stuck with Android. \

williamh

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by I am a Zither Zather Zuzz

I am not a lawyer, but I don't think you've interpreted it correctly.

I think when a company is preparing for litigation, they make the strongest and most expansive case possible to encourage settlement and heh, maybe to intimidate as well. I expect that this can make for potentially a very lengthy case that can be confusing and time consuming for the judge and very expensive for the litigants. Some of the claims may require a lot of work when they are not really central to the argument. I understand that the judge asks them to strip out those sorts of claims to simply things for the court. They have lots of other cases to deal with.

thataveragejoe

said about 12 years ago

Quote:

Originally Posted by IQatEdo

Samsung was so desperate to appropriate Apple's design cues and the look and feel of Apple's products that they were willing to risk litigation.

Of course they were. In part for arrogance and in part because when big guys end up in court no one really wins. Look at the Google Oracle debacle. Oracle wanted 6 billion, they will be lucky to get 32 million, if they even win.

msimpson

said about 12 years ago

In the global economy companies have to deal with different cultures with different histories and interpretations of ethical behavior. What would would seem as copying, plagiarizing, or stealing in the US is not viewed the same way everywhere. Making a cheaper copy of what someone else has created is considered OK, and patents mean little. You can negotiate all you want, and they will sit there and smile and act agreeable and make promises, but they have no intention of changing their behavior. And they see nothing wrong with that - it is their culture. Not say it is right, but that is just the way it is. What we think as sneaky, devious and lying means nothing to them.

Apple could have negotiated with them for years and continued to get nowhere. Suing Samsung all over the world was their only resort.