Apple Samsung patent infringementApple is allegedly in the belief that Samsung purposefully destroyed e-mail evidence that could’ve been used in an ongoing patent infringement suit between the two companies. Known in the legal world as “spoliation of evidence,” Apple’s claim was revealed in documents filed on May 1 in the Northern District of California.

According to Network World, Apple is encouraging the presiding Judge to reveal to the jury that Samsung destroyed “vast quantities of relevant evidence in blatant disregard of its duty to preserve all such evidence.”

Apple supposedly came to this conclusion by finding discrepancies in the number of documents deposed Samsung witnesses provided and the actual number of documents they were supposed to hand over, Network World said.

One such document was an email in which Won Pyo Hong, the head of Samsung’s Product Strategy Team, supposedly requested a side-by-side comparison of Apple and Samsung products for a design presentation. The iPhone-maker also highlighted an incident Samsung was previously involved in with Mosaid Technologies, which found the Korean company adhering to a policy of deleting employee emails every two weeks, even when instructed not to do so.

Apple and the Court cannot possibly know how many more emails Dr. Hong sent or received that would have supported Apple’s claims that Samsung copied Apple products had they not been deleted, Apple’s motion said. The same is true for the many other Samsung witnesses who produced only a handful of emails, or none at all.

Samsung’s reply brief is due May 15, while Apple’s motion is scheduled for June 7. In addition, both Apple and Samsung have been instructed to meet on May 21 and 22 in San Francisco by Judge Lucy Koh in order to potentially resolve the many legal disputes between the two companies, which currently include 50 lawsuits across 10 countries.

[via Network World, Apple Insider]