Judge to Samsung: Photos of Steve Jobs are relevant to this litigation

Samsung made an effort to bar the jury from seeing some of Apple’s opening slides ahead of the big lawsuit that kicked off earlier today in San Jose, northern California. Samsung filed as much as fourteen objections to the use of images of Steve Jobs in the opening presentation over fear they might affect the jurors emotionally and consequentially skew their judgment.

One of Apple’s slides is a screenshot from the announcement of the iPad in July 2010 and the other depicts the highly publicized January 2007 iPhone introduction which Apple argues “launched the fame that the iPhone trade dress has acquired”

However, late Sunday the court overruled all of the South Korean conglomerate’s objections, ruling that each of the images of Steve Jobs “is relevant to Apple’s iPhone design patent and trade dress claims and is not unduly prejudicial”…

Samsung objected it should be allowed to re-introduce the “thermonuclear war” argument if Apple were to use Steve Jobs images:

If Apple is allowed to use these slides, Samsung requests that the Court allow it to use the quotes from Mr. Jobs – which do have nonprejudicial evidentiary value – and yet were excluded by the Court’s ruling on Apple’s Motion in Limine No. 7.

Samsung is referring here to the specific quotes from the bio book that describe how Jobs had become obsessed with waging a “thermonuclear war” against Android because he felt it was a stolen product.

Jobs told Isaacson:

Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google, you f**king ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off.’ Grand theft. I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple’s $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong.

I’m going to destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go to thermonuclear war on this. They are scared to death, because they know they are guilty. Outside of Search, Google’s products—Android, Google Docs—are s**t.

Samsung for the time being won’t be allowed to use the controversial quotes in this litigation as the court deemed them hearsay and inadmissible.

As for the Steve Jobs images, patent expert Florian Müeller opines in a post over at his blog FOSS Patents:

Simply put, if Apple shows pictures of Steve Jobs in its opening presentation, Samsung wants to quote the part on “thermonuclear war” against Android from Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs biography.

But things aren’t that simple. Quotes from that biography are just hearsay and were deemed inadmissible without any exception.

While Apple is allowed now to bring those slides as the court deemed them relevant to the case, there’s no denying that the jurors will be involuntarily affected on the emotional level to a certain degree.

Do you think Apple insists on using Steve Jobs photos in their opening presentation to make an emotional appeal to the jurors?