Samsung Executives Were Given Details of a Highly Confidential Nokia-Apple Patent License

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Posted October 6, 2013 at 6:12am by Shalom Levytam

Apple is seeking sanctions against Samsung after it was discovered that company executives were given details of a highly confidential Nokia-Apple patent license, reports FOSS Patents.

At a hearing on Wednesday, Apple and possibly Nokia requested sanctions against Samsung and/or its outside counsel for illegal disclosure of confidential business information.

On June 4th, 2013, executives from Samsung and Nokia held a meeting to discuss a patent licensing deal. At that meeting, Samsung executive Dr. Seungho Ahn, "informed Nokia that the terms of the Apple-Nokia license were known to him".

Nokia's Chief Intellectual Property Officer, Paul Melin, says that at Ahn "stated that Apple had produced the Apple-Nokia license in its litigation with Samsung, and that Samsung's outside counsel had provided his team with the terms of the Apple-Nokia license". Additionally, Melin said that "to prove to Nokia that he knew the confidential terms of the Apple-Nokia license, Dr. Ahn recited the terms of the license, and even went so far as to tell Nokia that 'all information leaks.'"

Judge Grewal writes "[t]here is reason to believe the rule [that confidential information made available only to outside counsel won't be disclosed to the party itself] has been breached in the present case"; however, the court is seeking more information to determine "[w]hether the actions of Samsung and its counsel are worthy of sanctions, and what those sanctions might be".

Notably, Apple also provided license agreements it stuck with Ericsson, Sharp, and Philips to outside Samsung counsel under the same confidentiality rules.

The next hearing on this issue is scheduled for October 22nd.

You can find a much more detailed explanation of the situation at the link below...

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Concerned - October 6, 2013 at 6:58am

It has proven over and over again that Samsung lies, cheats, doesn't hold up to agreements(contracts), and manipulates quite a bit. I don't understand how they are allowed to just waltz over any and everyone. I like their product, but not Samsung executives/employees.

Nuck Chorris - October 6, 2013 at 2:42pm

The same can be said about apple

applegeek - October 6, 2013 at 3:44pm

prove Apple has ever cheated or lied in business. you can't because THAT is a lie! they are leaders and samesung is a copier, with phones and cheating with patent agreements as well it seems! shameful and hopefully punishable!

beto - October 6, 2013 at 3:50pm

Apple stole the mouse from xerox and the ipod from a guy who didnt received a single dollar. Dont be a fanboy now.

lakj100 - October 6, 2013 at 9:24pm

You all should get all your facts straight before making comments. The people at Xerox got the idea for the mouse from a Stanford Research Institute researcher named Douglas Engelbart and the Xerox mouse was a three button mouse. Apple Engineers designed a one button mouse for use in their system (innovation). The GUI that Xerox had consisted of clicking on an icon to get a pop-up menu with the list of commands, instead of having to type the command. A far cry from using a mouse to manipulate the size or position of a window or scroll bars or scroll buttons or a icons on a desktop (innovation). Apple did not plead guilty they were found guilty by a judge and would be appealing the decision.

Nuck Chorris - October 6, 2013 at 11:55pm

You are correct they did not plead guilty. Apple is far to arrogant for that. They are appealing their guilty verdict even though their co-conspirators (publishers) settled with the government a while back.