Will the jury hearing Apple’s blockbuster iPhone and iPad copycat case against Samsung care that Samsung failed to preserve pro-Apple evidence when it knew litigation was on the horizon? Barring a last-minute settlement shocker, it looks like court watchers are going to find out.
In an order issued early Wednesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal in San Jose agreed with Apple Inc.’s lawyers at Morrison & Foerster and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr that Samsung allowed emails that were relevant to Apple’s infringement claims to be deleted. When the trial begins next week, he ruled, the jury will be instructed that the missing evidence was favorable to Apple and that Samsung ignored its obligations to preserve it. That’s a bitter pill for Samsung’s lawyers at Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan to swallow just days before trial starts on Monday.
