The legal tussle – Apple Vs Epic is on its way and it is getting quite interesting. After the end of the first week of trial, Apple is now counterattacking one of the witnesses. The witness is Lori Wright, vice president of Xbox business development. Her testimony is in favor of Epic in the debate on whether the iPhone is a “general purpose” or a “special purpose” device. Wright’s testimony also raised questions about whether Microsoft is making money selling Xbox hardware. Apple accused Wright of irregularities and asked the judge to find the credibility of the testimony in doubt.
Apple argues that some of the documents in Wright’s testimony are completely new. The company claims that it has not seen these documents before. Thus, the credibility of the entire testimony is in doubt. Apple’s lawyers mainly targeted Wright’s statement: Xbox hardware is sold at cost to subsidize game sales.
Apple argues the authenticity of Microsoft’s testimony
Apple wrote in the document: “Miss Wright testified that Microsoft’s mainframe business is not profitable. However, she but did not provide a profit and loss statement to prove (or falsify) her testimony”.
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Apple has taken similar measures before. The company said in April that Wright’s testimony should be removed from the record due to irregular documentation in the weeks before the trial. Now, they believe that Wright’s testimony is beyond the pre-determined range, and therefore should be deemed unreliable in his entire testimony.
The core of the problem is Microsoft’s profit and loss analysis of Xbox hardware. However, no one at Apple has seen this analysis. It is worth noting that Apple and Microsoft have been in fierce competition for decades. Although Apple does not specifically compete with Xbox products, the two companies have reached a delicate balance between fierce competition and business cooperation. Because of this, Microsoft certainly does not want to provide Apple with sensitive financial data about Xbox, and Apple believes that the income statement is a way to fight back against Microsoft-after all, Microsoft first intervened in the “Epic v. Apple” case.
Apple Vs Epic is a very chaotic case
Since the hearing of the case, documents have always been an important issue. As long as the litigation continues, this problem is likely to continue to exist. The two parties agreed in advance to upload relevant files to a public Box folder, but the actual use of the folder is very confusing. Over 100 different documents were uploaded to the common display folder on the first day. Since then, there are additions of documents almost daily.
Industry insiders believe that the process of this case is unusually chaotic. The evidence collection process of this case reveals a lot of information. However, a good part of this information does not comply with the process. Microsoft is now caught in a dilemma: Either give up information that may be helpful to the courts or expose trade secrets to rivals. Microsoft hopes that Epic can win this lawsuit, and if it helps to achieve this goal, they are willing to talk about Xbox’s profitability.
