In post-trial battles with Samsung, Apple fights to keep documents sealed

Just several weeks ago, Apple won a huge patent victory in the courtroom of US District Judge Lucy Koh. But now the company is finding itself on the defensive in the same San Jose courtroom, in a different battle -- the fight to keep its financial information secret.

Judge Koh denied Apple's request to seal a variety of documents tied to its financial performance. The redacted documents include "product-specific unit sales, revenue, profit, profit margin, and cost data" that would bolster Apple's arguments for more damages. The figures are important to Apple, because it wants a serious heap of cash added on to the jury's already enormous verdict, which, if it stands, would be the largest patent verdict in history. Apple is looking for an extra $535 million in damages in addition to the $1.05 billion awarded by the jury, and it also wants a variety of Samsung products kicked off the market; Samsung, meanwhile, wants a new trial, and claims that the jury foreman wasn't truthful about his history of lawsuits and view of the patent system. As a company, Apple reports its profits regularly; but those profits are typically not broken out by product. Even numbers like how many iPod touches were sold in the US weren't revealed until they were shown during the Apple v. Samsung trial, and eagerly recorded by the small army of reporters who congregated each day in the back rows of the San Jose courtroom.