Appeals court overrules Apple-Samsung judge, allows more document sealing

The openness of the Apple v. Samsung patent trial had limits that are becoming clear post-trial. US District Judge Lucy Koh wanted to unseal more documents post-trial, but she was sharply overruled by the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

During the trial, the two warring corporations unsealed many documents under Koh's eye. But there remained, at the end of the trial, a set of documents that the parties and the judge could not agree about. Those documents related to per-product pricing information on Apple products, as well as certain market research reports, among other things. Apple "cannot both use its financial data to seek multi-billion dollar damages and insist on keeping it secret," Judge Koh wrote back in October. "The public’s interest in accessing Apple’s financial information is now perhaps even greater than it was at trial." A three-judge appeals panel disagreed. "There is no doubt that this case generated an extraordinary amount of public interest," wrote the panel. "But it does not necessarily follow that the public has a legally cognizable interest in every document filed."