A judge in California is considering sanctions against Samsung and its lawyers in light of concerns that outsidel lawyers may have shared private data from Apple with Samsung.
Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal said:"Having finally crawled out from under the boxes, it appears to the undersigned that if anything was breached, it was this court’s protective order, and that sanctions against Samsung and its attorneys are warranted.
"Even after this exhaustive process, the court still does not have a complete picture of the events giving rise to this procedural flurry."
According to the Magistrate, the secret data included information on Apple’s patent licensing deals with Nokia, Ericsson, Sharp and Philips, which were intended to be viewed only by the attorneys.
The court "still does not have a complete picture of the events giving rise to this procedural flurry," added Judge Grewal in his order on 8 November.