Apple is to reveal the profitability of the Apple iPhone
Judge Lucy Koh, who presided over the epic Apple-Samsung patent suit, refused to grant Apple the right to seal its financial records, and ordered Apple to reveal these for the Court to see if the company can justify the large $1.05 billion verdict that it was awarded by the jury.
Judge Koh made it clear that if Apple is going to use its financial performance to win huge verdicts, it cannot do so, yet keep those numbers a secret. Therefore she has demanded that Apple reveals the profitability of the Apple iPhone.
Now, you might be asking yourself – since Apple is a public company, shouldn’t these figures be available to the public? The SEC does not however require that companies like Apple with a multitude of products, break out the profitability of each one. Would McDonalds issue a P/L for each variation of burger it sells?
The figures will not be made public immediately, as Judge Koh has decided to keep the documents sealed until she gets a ruling on her order from the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit which the higher court handling all patent cases. A similar order that the judge made on August 9th to unseal certain documents, has already been sent to the Appellate Court for their review.
