Samsung ordered to cough mobe sales figures to world+dog

Samsung has failed to keep under wraps sales totals for its Android-powered phones that are locked in a patent dispute with Apple.

In a particularly snippy filing from long-suffering Judge Lucy Koh, she made it clear that she did not think the South Korean electronics behemoth had a good reason to keep the info secret. Sammy must now hand over its unit sales figures for the months relevant to the ongoing mobile patent infringement battle.

Samsung doesn't want competing firms to know how many of each phone it has sold. The company asked for the data to stay in the courtroom, or failing that, to stay hidden until after its appeal against Apple's $1bn patent infringement win.

"This court has repeatedly found that the public disclosure of sales figures does not present significant risk of competitive harm, and again, Samsung has not presented any new argument for why such information should be sealed," the judge said.

Judge Koh added that Samsung's basis for its appeal is about pricing info and profit margins, not sales figures.

The chaebol is appealing the billion-dollar jury award won by Apple last August. Although the winner has, for the moment, been decided, the pair of warring tech firms still have plenty to snipe at each other about, such as how much in damages Samsung should actually pay in the end and whether or not its smartphones should be banned from sale.

Judge Koh, whose patience with the patent squabblers has been thin from the start, reminded both companies that the court had gone through a lot of these motions already and they would have to work hard to convince her sealing the figures is necessary. ®