Apple Inc and Samsung Electronics received a setback on Tuesday with a U.S. court rejecting requests of the electronics giants to seal some key documents out of public view in their patent war which is up for hearing later this month.
Apple and Samsung have requested not to reveal the key documents of the patent infringement case. The electronic giants are involved in patent battle in several countries.
U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued an order on Tuesday, ruling that the documents shouldn't be sealed. "It appears that the parties have overdesignated confidential documents and are seeking to seal information that is not truly sealable," Reuters quoted the statement of the court.
The court has given one week time to the companies to refile their sealing requests.
Filing documents under seal has become almost standard procedure in intellectual-property cases as companies try to keep their trade secrets and other sensitive business information from coming out during litigation.
Apple sued Samsung last year over patent infringement. It managed to stop sales of Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet and Galaxy Nexus smartphone in the United States recently.
However, Samsung later won an appeal to allow its sales after reportedly updating software for its Galaxy Nexus mobile phones. Internet giant Google has provided software for the smartphone.
The trial of the long-fought battle is scheduled to begin on July 30.
Apple and Samsung have been at loggerheads for a quite a long time now, acussing each other of violating patenting laws. The two giants in consumer electronics are waging patent war in several countries.
(With Inputs from Reuters)
