Google, the third-wheeler in the second legal tussle between Apple and Samsung, is even more dragged into the case and controversy after the latest trial showed that it offered to help Samsung in its fight against the patent infringement case thrown by Apple, and worse, Samsung lied about it.
The lawyers of Apple revealed this interesting twist in the face-off of the two leading mobile makers from the email exchanges of Samsung and Google.
Apple Atty. Harold McElhinny recalled an instance wherein Samsung said during an interrogation on Sept. 24, 2012 that it is not presently pursuing indemnification from any third party. This statement poised Atty. McElhinny to show a video deposition of Atty. James Maccoun, Google counsel, outlining that Samsung and Google came up with an agreement of indemnity.
"There is a Mobile Applications Development Agreement, and I understand that to be an agreement between Google Inc. and Samsung relating to indemnity and defense," Atty. Maccoun said in the video deposition.
"So I understand that Google is defending Samsung and that this is reflected by emails," he also said when Atty. McElhinny asked if Google agreed to the indemnity.
Atty. McElhinny next presented two emails to the court. One is from JaeHyoung Kim of Samsung addressed to Andy Rubin of Android that was dated April 5, 2012, some months following Apple's case against Samsung in 2011 and over five months prior to Samsung's denial of indemnification agreement. The other is from Allen Lo of the Deputy General Counsel Patents and Patent Litigation of Google to, again, Kim of Samsung that was dated May 21, 2012.
Atty. Maccoun understood that Google, in its second email, was then offering to defend Samsung to the MADA and some of Apple's claims, as well as to "tender the defense" for Google to defend Samsung. He said "tender the defense" is a legal term that means permitting the indemnitor to take control of the defense and litigation.
When by Atty. McElhinny, if Samsung indeed tendered the defense to Google, Atty. Maccoun said it has as far as he knows.
Various researches say it was not clear how much financial support Google gave or will give to Samsung, as the two parties refused to comment. This is not the first time Google made MADA agreements with its partners or hardware manufacturers, but the details were undisclosed. Also, this is said to be not the first time for Google to help Android mobile makers defend themselves from lawsuit, until recent changes were made following a legal squabble between Google and Oracle. In a previous lawsuit between HTC and Nokia, Google was said to have an important role defending HTC, which led to a settlement among the involved parties.
The current legal battle between Apple and Samsung involves five patents, with the former accusing the latter on infringing these patents. The patents are said to cover user-interface designs for Apple's iOS software, which include features such as auto spell correct, slide-to-unlock, word search and ability to make a call by pressing a phone number that is within an email or Web page without having to dial separately, among others.
