Google Agreed to Pay Some of Samsung’s Costs, Assume Some Liability in Latest Apple Case

A Google lawyer testified that the company, pursuant to its contractual obligations, agreed to take over defense of some of the claims in Apple’s current patent lawsuit as well as to indemnify Samsung should it lose on those claims.

Apple played deposition testimony from Google lawyer James Maccoun, who verified emails in which Google agreed to provide partial or full indemnity with regard to four patents as well as to take over defense of those claims.

Of the four patents Google over which offered to cover at least some costs, two were dropped from the case before the trial began. The two patents that remain in the case, the ’414 and ’959 patents, cover background synchronization and universal search, respectively.

Although Google was seen as a shadow figure in the case -- most of the patents in this trial have to do with functions of Android or Google’s apps -- this was the first evidence shown to the jury that Google is playing a central role in the defense.