Judge faults Samsung over deleted emails; Apple says Samsung seeks too much in royalties

Federal Judge Paul Grewal would ground Samsung and take away its cell phone if it could, for failing to save email that was expected to be used as evidence in its patent trial against Apple. Samsung automatically deletes all emails older than two weeks and failed to disable the system for those emails that were considered to be evidence. The reason for the automatic deletion is to prevent sensitive information from being leaked. As it is, Judge Grewal has sanctioned Samsung and has consented to Apple's request for an "adverse jury instruction" to be read to the jurors. The jurors will be informed that the Korean based manufacturer had failed to live up to its obligation to preserve evidence.

In ruling in favor of Apple in regard to the adverse jury instructions, the judge said Samsung "acted with conscious disregard of its obligations, or willfully" in not disabling the automatic email erasure system. He also said that Samsung should have known that Apple would have sued over patents relating to smartphones and tablets and should have kept all corresponding email. The trial starts July 30th.

Apple also was vocal on Wednesday, saying that Samsung's demand for 2.4% of the entire selling price of Apple's mobile products is higher than the royalty that the Cupertino based tech giant pays for licensing other patents, and is higher than any royalty or licensing fee that Samsung has ever received for its IP. One of the big issues to be decided in court is the value of Samsung's standards-essential patents. These are patents that Samsung has agreed to have licensed on "fair and reasonable" terms in return for becoming industry standards. Many judges will not issue an injunction on these patents.

While Samsung is asking for 2.4% of the full selling price of each Apple mobile device, Apple says it should pay Samsung less than half a cent for each patent infringement it committed. Samsung said the 2.4% it is asking for is consistent with what other companies pay for royalty fees. Apple has not made a counter-offer and instead Apple has refused to negotiate a settlement and has not paid Samsung anything for the use of the latter's standards-essential technology.

source: Reuters