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Apple has been told by a US judge that its per-product profits will be revealed, meaning we could find out exactly how much dosh Apple makes from flogging the iPhone, iPad and other gadgets.
Apple is suing Samsung for an additional $535 million in damages, following the $1 billion payout it was awarded in August, Ars Technica reports. Apple asked to keep a variety of documents regarding its financial results private, including “product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin and cost data”.
Judge Koh has slammed that appeal, however. The court order states (PDF link), “Beyond continuing to assert that its financial data are ‘trade secrets’, Apple has not
provided any new arguments for why this information should be protected.”
The legal blow follows news today that Apple must issue a public statement saying that Samsung didn’t infringe upon its intellectual property.
The unveiling of the figures could be an unfortunate consequence of the company’s pursuit of additional damages from Samsung. Apple “cannot both use its financial data to seek multi-billion dollar damages and insist on keeping it secret,” the court order says.
Apple regularly reveals exactly how much profit it’s made, but only as a single amount that gives little clue as to how much moolah individual gadgets are raking in. That kind of information would certainly make for an intriguing read.
Apple has another chance to stop the data being made public. Judge Koh won’t unseal the documents until the US Court of Appeals agrees that the information contained within should be revealed. A similar order from August is also awaiting review.
It’s been a bad day for Apple’s lawyers, but how are you feeling about the verdicts? Tell me in the comments or on our Facebook wall.
