Judge refuses to bar Steve Jobs quotes from patent trial
Reuters reported on Friday that a judge has rejected Apple's request to have several incendiary quotes about Google's Android platform from former CEO Steve Jobs blocked from being used in the upcoming patent trial between Apple and Google's Motorola Mobility unit.
In the Walter Isaacson biography of Steve Jobs, the late CEO expressed his fiery feelings about the patent litigation: "Our lawsuit is saying, 'Google, you f**king ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off.' Grand theft. I'm willing to go to thermonuclear war on this."
Apple lawyers made a court filing last month asking to have any reference to the book blocked during the trial "to avoid any potential prejudice to Apple if Motorola attempts to use the book to appeal to the jury's passion." On Thursday, federal judge Richard Posner rejected Apple's request. In a separate order, he also forbid Apple from arguing that jurors should favor Apple over Motorola if they admire Jobs or like Apple products.
Apple has separately asked a California federal judge to block quotes from the Walter Isaacson biography from being used in the upcoming patent trial against Samsung. That trial is scheduled for July.
