United States magistrate judge

Update: The tactic worked. Facing disclosure to a jury that both Apple and Samsung failed to uphold document retention laws, the two companies struck a deal to keep the matter private.

Bloomberg reported today that Samsung chief Kwon Oh Hyun and Apple chief Tim Cook will speak on the phone today ahead of jury deliberations in the ongoing Apple v. Samsung trial in San Jose. Another update in the case comes from paid blogger Florian Mueller (most recently funded by Microsoft and Oracle), who reported a previous ruling from Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal, to only provide an adverse inference jury instruction against Samsung, was overruled by Judge Lucy Koh in a decision late yesterday.

Therefore, instead of the jury hearing only a statement regarding Samsung failing to preserve evidence, jurors will also hear the same statement related to Apple. According to Mueller, Samsung claimed that “Apple’s duty to preserve email must have arisen no later than Samsung’s duty.”

Samsung pointed out that Apple neglected to provide emails from former CEO Steve Jobs mentioning the patent trial from 2010 until his resignation and death in 2011. That was apparently enough to convince the judge.

The instruction the court plans to give the jury before deliberations on Wednesday —unless Apple can get Koh to change her decision in a hearing today— is below.

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According to a report from Foss Patents (and confirmed by Reuters), Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Samsung Chief Executive Officer Gee-Sung Choi will meet within the next 90 days for settlement talks over ongoing patent disputes. Judge Lucy Koh, who is presiding over the two cases in California, initiated the meeting after ordering the companies to submit their CEOs and legal counsels to an Alternative Dispute Resolution.

“As directed by the Court, Apple and Samsung are both willing to participate in a Magistrate Judge Settlement Conference with Judge Spero as mediator. At Apple, the chief executive officer and general counsel are the appropriate decision-makers, and they will represent Apple during the upcoming settlement discussions. At Samsung, the chief executive officer and general counsel are also the appropriate decision-makers, and they will represent Samsung during these settlement discussions.”

The report called the talks “semi-voluntary,” because the companies did not have to submit to the Alternative Dispute Resolution. However, as pointed out by Foss Patents, “if only one of them had made the CEO available, the other one would have appeared to be less than constructive.” Apple and Samsung executives will meet in San Francisco with U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero sometime over the next three months:

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