Judge denies Samsung’s accusation that Apple altered its evidence to make it look like an iPhone

During the Apple versus Samsung trial today, Samsung fired back by alleging Apple of tampering the icon layout on one of its phones to make it look more like an iPhone. Apple apparently presented an image of Samsung’s Epic Touch 4G to point out the similarity of its “out of the box” icon layout to the iPhone. Samsung retorted saying that the image of the Epic 4G “does not represent” the current state of the device, considering the firmware updates it has received. Samsung lawyers proceeded to present their own image of the device that had a different “out of the box” icon layout, saying that the photo had been taken on Sunday.

Judge Lucy Koh, after hearing both parties, questioned the veracity of Samsung’s photos. “Why does your homescreen not show the Google search box when you’re telling me the phone has the Google search box,” Judge Koh asked. Koh also noticed that the image from Samsung had yesterday’s date on it instead of Sunday. A Samsung lawyer eventually admitted that he accidentally interchanged the date. Responding to Samsung’s accusation, Apple lawyer Michael Jacobs denied that they altered the icon layout of the device saying, “There has been no manipulation. We’ve been rigorous about that.” Judge Koh eventually ruled saying, “I find it not credible that Apple tampered with these phones.”

Gene Ryan Briones
Categories: Apple
Tags: Legal, Samsung