Apple and Samsung were ordered this week to scale back their ongoing patent battle so as not to subject jurors to "cruel and unusual punishment," a California judge said.
As reported by IDG News Service, Judge Lucy Koh ordered Apple and Samsung to streamline their cases so jurors can get a better grip on the issues at hand. Having to sort through dozens of patents, trademarks, and other claims is "cruel and unusual punishment to a jury, so I'm not willing to do it," Koh said during a Wednesday status conference, IDG said.
In a Tuesday joint filing, Apple said it would be willing to ditch one of the eight patents it is asserting, as well as "several dozen patent claims." They deal with touch-screen hardware, tap to zoom and navigate technology, and status bars, among other things.
Despite these concessions, however, Samsung said there is still too much ground to cover in the 25 hours that each side has to present their cases. Samsung also took issue with the fact that Apple was late in informing Samsung about which claims it would be willing to drop. When that data was made available, "it became clear that Apple had not sufficiently reduced its case," Samsung said.
"Apple's purported reductions do virtually nothing to streamline the case because each of the intellectual property assets Apple says it will drop are cumulative of other claims," according to Samsung.
Judge Koh apparently agreed and said the case might be pushed back to 2013 rather than this summer if a deal cannot be reached.
Last month, she ordered the two sides into settlement talks, which are scheduled for May 21-22, but an agreement is far from a done deal.
A recent filing, meanwhile, also included several amusing requests from both sides - from Apple's demand that Samsung's logo not be displayed in the courtroom to Samsung's request that content from Apple-related blogs be banned.
The case dates back to April 2011, when Apple suing Samsung for copying the look and feel of its iPhone and iPad in its flagship Galaxy S line of devices. Samsung responded with a countersuit, and the case has now expanded to more than 50 lawsuits in 10 countries.