Judge Koh makes more rulings in advance of trial, rules Jobs' statements to biographer inadmissible

With the Apple-Samsung trial scheduled to start July 30th, Wednesday saw Judge Lucy Koh tie up some loose ends by making a ruling here, a ruling there. For example, in a ruling that favored Apple (as most of them did on Wednesday) the Judge said that comments made by the late Steve Jobs to his biographer were an "inadmissible distraction" and she also limited testimony about Apple's Chinese manufacturing situation in an effort to exclude any talk about the tech titan's problems involving  Foxconn and the latter's alleged human rights violations.

Judge Koh is obviously concerned about presiding over a speedy trial. She ruled that Korean based Samsung would have to reduce its list of the 192 witnesses that its lawyers wish to call to the stand during the trial. Judge Koh called Sammy's request "not realistic" and reminded both sides that they each are limited to a maximum of 25 hours of witness testimony each. Both Apple and Samsung agreed to keep the jury verdict form down to 8 to 12 pages from the original 40. In an interesting piece of news that we can heartily applaud, the Judge said that exhibits from both companies would be made public. That includes design and marketing documents that Apple and Samsung had both asked to keep secret. Only third party source code will be sealed.

One piece of good news for Samsung came from a ruling made by the Judge that limits Apple to discuss Samsung's "questionable tax status" in the States, but the Cupertino based firn will not be allowed to discuss any claim of tax avoidance on Samsung's part. Apple has been requested by the Judge to limit its claims against Samsung to keep the trial moving at a quick pace. Apple had tried to get a Temporary Restraining Order on the sizzling hot Samsung Galaxy S III, the one handset that might be considered a true Apple iPhone rival, but was denied. Meanwhile, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 is under an injunction, preventing sales, while there is a stay on the injunction on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus as a Federal Appeals Court works things out. The latter is back on sale at the Google Pay Store with Android 4.1.1 installed, after a software update removed the offending local search feature from the phone.

source: electronista