Apple and Corellium Dispute Propriety of Evidence Ahead of Summer Jury Trial


Corellium Inc. opposed Apple Inc.’s motion for leave to file a motion in limine precluding a demonstrative aid which Apple claims does not represent Corellium’s actual software product in a filing on Wednesday.

The case, after a December 2020 summary judgment ruling, is now proceeding on a Digital Millennium Copyright Act claim. It concerns whether Correllium’s software product treads on Apple’s copyrighted methods.

In Apple’s May 19 motion for leave to file a motion in limine, it argued that a Corellium’s demonstrative exhibit “is not demonstrative at all, but is instead a made-for-litigation version of its software product that no customer has ever seen—that Corellium just recently disclosed to Apple more than a year after the close of discovery.”

The defendant’s purported intention to run the “newly minted” software program before the jury leaves Apple’s counsel and experts with no opportunity to examine the code as it requires access to Corellium’s internal systems, the May motion explained. The filing asserted that because Apple cannot vet the code and because it will confuse and mislead jurors, who will have trouble “distinguishing it from the real thing,” the court should bar Corellium from presenting the evidence.

In its response this week, Corellium contended that Apple’s motions should be denied as premature and argued they are flawed. According to Corellium, “the source code in question is intended solely as a demonstrative aid to facilitate the jury’s understanding of complex high-tech concepts at issue that will be the subject of testimony.”

The opposition takes on Apple’s contention that the source code is newly produced. Instead, the defendant says that Apple has had access to it since April 2020. In addition, Corellium claimed that the motion is substantively void because Apple “has not and cannot make any showing that the only code that will not confuse the jury is the alleged product at issue.”

The motion hearing is scheduled for Friday, May 28 before the magistrate judge assigned to the case, and trial for July 7 before Judge Rodney Smith of the Southern District of Florida.

Apple is represented by Lash & Goldberg and Latham & Watkins. Corellium is represented by Cole, Scott & Kissane and Hecht Partners.