A busy week from Apple lawyers, but really, not much went well for Cupertino. This week, Apple faces damning evidence in a class-action suit made public, Cupertino pulls back the reins on its lawsuit against Motorola, and the highest court in the Netherlands tells Apple "Yes, you heard us right the first time: you’re wrong."
It can't be all bad for Apple, right? Cue the “dun dun” and lets dig in!
TechCrunch reports that new evidence has been made public in a class action civil lawsuit filed in May 2011 to determine if Apple, Google, Pixar, Lucasfilm, Adobe, Intel, and Intuit entered into a mutual agreement to not hire employees from either of the companies involved in the pact. The hearing will begin tomorrow, and new evidence from a 2009 United States Department of Justice investigation on this matter was released to the public for the first time last week.
First world problem?
The evidence filed by the Department of Justice appears to be against Apple's favor, with detailed emails among C-level employees discussing "gentlemen's agreements" not to solicit employees from either companies, not to give offers to employees who voluntarily applied, and to notify current employers of any employees trying to switch companies. According to the emails, the companies also agreed to refrain from bidding wars and to cap the amount employees can negotiate for higher salaries.
Apple and Motorola continue to battle in courtrooms around the world, with mixed results for both companies. According to Bloomberg, the next big case in the United States between the two has at least settled on which issues each side will be arguing.
We'll see you in court.
Last week, U.S. Circuit Court Judge Richard A. Posner invalidated two of the patents in an upcoming case and stated Apple did not infringe on a third, but found that five other patents did require a trial.
Posner scheduled a jury trial on the case for June 11, 2012. Game on.
Are you not surprised that the two constantly-squabbling companies are at it again? The saga in Apple's repeated attempts to ban the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the Netherlands continues. In October when the Dutch court ruled that Samsung’s device was notably different from the iPad, Apple immediately appealed. Yesterday, however, a court in The Hague, the capital of the Netherlands, once again ruled against Apple and cleared the Galaxy Tab 10.1 for immediate sale.
Hello, Netherlands. We're still here.
Adrian writes the weekly Law & Apple column for MacLife.com. Follow him on Twitter, subscribe to him on Facebook.
