By Sam Oliver

Published: 08:05 AM EST (05:05 AM PST)

A U.S. Circuit Court judge has denied Samsung's request to see Apple's unannounced fifth-generation iPhone and third-generation iPad, characterizing the request as overreaching.

The 11-page order came from Judge Lucy Koh on Tuesday, and while it's not permanent, it's a victory for Apple. As detailed by Florian Mueller of Foss Patents, the judge "made a lot of effort" to explain that Samsung is entitled to parity in its case with Apple, but in this instance the company had no justifiable reason to see Apple's next-generation products.

Apple and Samsung met in court last Friday, but Judge Koh did not rule from the bench, as Apple had amended its complaint the day before the hearing. She said that Samsung did not show "good cause" to justify an expedited discovery of Apple's future products, packaging and inserts.

"If Samsung had requested reasonable discovery along the lines discussed at the hearing on Apple's motion for expedited discovery, the Court would have granted the request," the order reads. "However, as Samsung has not requested such discovery in this motion, the Court cannot order it. In any case, it appears that Apple may be willing to provide such discovery without the need for Court intervention."

Samsung initially filed a motion in late May, asking to see Apple's next iPhone and iPad by June 13. The request came after the court ordered Samsung to show prototypes of its new, already-announced devices to Apple.

Last week, Apple characterized Samsung's requests as nothing more than "attempts to harass" that were not made in good faith. In that filing, Apple also referred to Samsung as "the copyist."



Apple fired the first legal salvo in April, when the company sued Samsung for allegedly copying the look and feel of the iPad and iPhone with its own Galaxy-branded tablet and smartphone products. Samsung quickly fired back and accused Apple of violating patents related to cellphone transmission technologies.

Executives with Samsung this week denied there have been talks with Apple to resolve their patent dispute out of court. This quarter, the Korean company is expected to become the largest smartphone maker in the world.