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Apple to Samsung: Don't reveal iPad, iPhone sales data

One of the most secretive companies in Silicon Valley is squirming over Samsung's intention to make sales data public today during their patent trial.

Greg Sandoval Former Staff writer
Greg Sandoval covers media and digital entertainment for CNET News. Based in New York, Sandoval is a former reporter for The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. E-mail Greg, or follow him on Twitter at @sandoCNET.
Greg Sandoval
2 min read

Apple has asked a U.S. District judge to prevent Samsung from making public "confidential" and "competitively sensitive" information today during court proceedings.

Greg Sandoval/CNET

In documents filed by Apple, the company's lawyers said they have two separate motions to seal the information pending before the court and that they make a "document-by-document showing of good cause and compelling reasons for sealing" the exhibits that Samsung wishes to use when it cross-examines Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing.

Apple filed a patent suit accusing Samsung of ripping off its intellectual property involving the iPhone and iPad. Samsung counter-sued, and the court case for both of these suits kicked off this week (See CNET's complete trial coverage here).

According to Apple's filing, the information includes sales summaries for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch, as well as tracking studies from the second quarter of 2011 and buyer surveys from last year. Apple made it clear that of all the information it doesn't want disclosed, the summaries of the sales data is most important.

"Without further action, these highly confidential exhibits will be publicly disclosed causing severe harm to Apple," Apple's lawyers wrote to U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh, who is presiding over the case.

Apple suggested that Samsung lawyers tried to pull a fast one by notifying Apple late last night that they intended to use the exhibits.

The case has already seen the disclosures of once-confidential information, including photos of iPhone and iPad prototypes. Apple is one of Silicon Valley's most secretive companies and goes to great lengths to protect itself.

The evolution of Samsung's smartphones (pictures)

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The company last year sent security agents to the home of a San Francisco man who the company believed had found a lost prototype handset, a story first reported by CNET. With police backing them up, the Apple employees searched the man's home, car, and computer. The handset was never found.

It must be hell for Apple to see sensitive information at the center of a court case.

If Koh decides to allow Samsung to enter the data into evidence, Apple asked the judge that she first grant a five-day stay "so that Apple may seek relief."

 
A graphic included by Apple in its court filing shows what information Samsung intends to use that Apple considers sensitive trade secrets. Screenshot by Greg Sandoval/CNET