Apple and Samsung are not required to publically disclose their profit statements.
A Federal appeals panel has just released a ruling that is making technology news headlines and that has entitled tech giants Apple and Samsung to proceed without a requirement to reveal their profit information and many other confidential financial details.
The decision of this panel is a direct reversal of a previous ruling that had been made by a lower court.
The technology news from the previous ruling would have required both Apple and Samsung to publically disclosed highly protected sales and profit data. The First Amendment Coalition, an advocacy group that gave its arguments within the appeals court in favor of forcing the companies to disclose their financial data, has expressed its disappointment in the outcome by way of a statement from its executive director, Peter Scheer.
This specific technology news case involved a decision in which the panel felt protecting financial data did not impede transparency.
The Federal appeals panel felt that even by allowing Samsung and Apple to protect the confidential financial data of their companies, there would be no impediment to their level of necessary transparency. Within a technology news statement, the panel announced that “We recognize the importance of protecting the public’s interest in judicial proceedings and of facilitating its understanding of those proceedings.”
The technology news statement went on to say that “That interest, however, does not extend to mere curiosity about the parties’ confidential information where that information is not central to a decision on the merits.”
At the time of the writing of this article, no statements were available from either Samsung or Apple with regards to this technology news. It can only be assumed that this would be seen as a win on their behalf, as it means that they will be able to maintain the close guard that they enjoy on their sensitive financial data. These massive tech giant organizations are well known for making great efforts in order to try to protect the information regarding their sales and the profits that they make every quarter and each year.
Other than this, very few other details regarding this augmented reality patent deal have been released. A spokesperson from Google has declined to make any additional comments regarding the purchase that was made. Neither Hon Hai, nor the company that facilitated the sale, MiiCs & Partners, was available for immediate response to press requests for a comment.