John Paczkowski

Recent Posts by John Paczkowski

Bombs Away! Judge Rules Steve Jobs’s “Thermonuclear” Comment Fair Game in Android Case.

Steve Jobs’s contentious comments about Android to biographer Walter Isaacson will be allowed into evidence in the Apple vs. Motorola Mobility lawsuit, despite attempts by Apple to block them.

Chicago federal judge Richard Posner, who’s presiding over the case, has ruled that Motorola is free to reference Jobs’s … colorful remarks if it so chooses. Which means the late Apple co-founder’s incendiary “thermonuclear war” quote will likely find its way into the case.

“Our lawsuit is saying, ‘Google, you fucking ripped off the iPhone, wholesale ripped us off,'” the infamous quote reads. “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 thermonuclear war on this.”

Apple last month filed a request to bar Motorola Mobility from making any reference to this quote and others from Isaacson’s biography of Jobs “to avoid any potential prejudice to Apple.” But Posner denied that request without explanation.

So Jobs’s posthumously published take on Android and Apple’s litigation against it is fair game in the courtroom, and the jury will almost certainly hear it. One thing the jury will not be hearing: Any news reports or publicity praising Apple, its products or Jobs.

On the same day Posner allowed Jobs’s remarks to Isaacson into the case, he barred Apple from appealing to jurors’ brand allegiance to Apple. Said Posner, “I forbid Apple to insinuate to the jury that this case is a popularity contest and jurors should be predisposed to render a verdict for Apple if they like Apple products or the Apple company or admire Steve Jobs, or if they dislike Motorola or Google.”

Twitter’s Tanking

December 30, 2013 at 6:49 am PT

2013 Was a Good Year for Chromebooks

December 29, 2013 at 2:12 pm PT

BlackBerry Pulls Latest Twitter for BB10 Update

December 29, 2013 at 5:58 am PT

Apple CEO Tim Cook Made $4.25 Million This Year

December 28, 2013 at 12:05 pm PT

Latest Video

View all videos »

Search »

Nobody was excited about paying top dollar for a movie about WikiLeaks. A film about the origins of Pets.com would have done better.

— Gitesh Pandya of BoxOfficeGuru.com comments on the dreadful opening weekend box office numbers for “The Fifth Estate.”