Apple vs Samsung LawsuitFollowing up on an incident where Samsung lawyer John Quinn willfully gave media outlets excluded trial evidence, the South Korea-based company has immediately began to perform damage control by arguing the information was public domain anyway.

In a filing to the court on Wednesday morning, Quinn said he was not trying to influence the judgement of the jury by releasing the information. "Samsung did not issue a general press release [to the media] and more importantly, did not violate any Court Order or any legal or ethical standards," Quinn said.

After Judge Lucy Koh announced the exclusion of the evidence in question, which deals with a design for the company's F700 device, Samsung released slides and a statement to several reputable outlets. Quinn argued that the evidence would have proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Samsung did not copy the iPhone design, no matter how easy it would be to do so.

Apple, for its part, called Samsung's tactics "contemptible," while Judge Lucy Koh threatened to sanction Quinn for his actions, though no punishment has been doled out.

The case so far has unearthed plenty of previous iPhone and iPad designs, but otherwise it's only just begun. Things are scheduled to pick back up on Friday, when Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing Phil Schiller will take the stand.

[via CNET]