Samsung Sanctioned in Big-Bucks Patent Case for Not Turning Off Company Email Auto-Delete System
A federal magistrate judge in California who is overseeing part of a big-bucks patent infringement case concerning Apple Inc.’s smartphones has sanctioned Samsung Electronics Co. over its use of its own proprietary email system.
Finding that the Samsung system, which automatically deletes email after two weeks unless employees save them, should have been turned off after the case was filed, Judge Paul Grewal agreed to an adverse jury instruction explaining that the company failed to preserve evidence as required, reports the Wall Street Journal (sub. req.).
“In effect, Samsung kept the shredder on long after it should have known about this litigation,” said Grewal in a written opinion.
Samsung says it will appeal the planned jury instruction. The trial is scheduled to begin on July 30.
Samsung and Apple have been involved in litigation around the globe concerning their intellectual property rights to technology involved in the companies’ competing smartphones and other electronic devices.
Related coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “Apple Ordered to Say on Its UK Site, in British Papers That Samsung Didn’t Copy iPad; Appeal Planned”
ABAJournal.com: “Bilingual Lawyers in Demand, But Jobs Are Temporary; Apple Hires Korean Speakers in Samsung Spat”
