So you thought Apple copied Sony, eh? Yeah, well, so did I. The truth is, Apple didn’t. Or at least Apple didn’t according to court documents it has filed in the on going Apple vs Samsung battle.

Not surprisingly, Apple filed a motion to suppress Samsung’s Apple-copied-Sony evidence. As reported by AllThingsD, Apple claims the evidence had already been excluded by another judge; Samsung didn’t disclose the evidence until after the discovery period of the trial; the article Samsung claims to have influenced the iPhone design didn’t contain any pictures; the Sony Walkman device discussed in the just-mentioned article looks nothing like the iPhone; and the deposition of former Apple designer Shin Nishibori is not admissible in court because the court never approved it and Apple didn’t get a chance to question him. As such, Samsung shouldn’t be allowed to use the evidence in court against Apple.

To further help its attempt to dismiss Samsung’s evidence, Apple included a few images in its official motion filing. The images are of Apple designs that pre-date the Shin Nishibori “Sony-style” design of 2006 that Samsung wants to put in front of a jury. Specifically, Apple displays its ‘Purple’ prototype of 2005 as proof that it didn’t copy Sony:

As you can see above, the ‘Purple’ prototype looks remarkably like the original iPhone 2G, and since it was developed a year before Shin Nishibori’s “Sony-style” design, Apple is using it as evidence to kill Samsung’s claim.

Apparently Judge Lucy Koh, the presiding judge over the case, is convinced by Apple’s argument and evidence. She has ruled Samsung will not be allowed to use the Apple-copied-Sony evidence in court. Samsung will have to come up with another ace in the hole if it wants to beat back Apple’s increasingly strong claims against it.

[via The Verge]