Samsung to grill Jony Ive as part of court case

The trial date for the court case between Apple and Samsung is set for July 2012, but last night it was revealed last night by Edible Apple that the depositions of Jony Ive and others in Apple's design department, which were supposed to have been completed by 1 November, have yet to take place.

For various reasons, the depositions have been delayed, with Samsung filing a motion in mid-October seeking an extension to these depositions to 1 December, due to Ive and others being unavailable before then.

Ive is listed as being unavailable before 1 November "for personal reasons." But what of these others? Who are they exactly, and what are their roles in this saga?

Douglas Satzger worked at Apple for 12 years until 2008, looking after colour materials and finishes from the first iMac to the iPhone, iPods, iPad and MacBooks. He went to Palm as senior director of industrial design in 2009.

Shin Nishibori is another of Ive's team, an industrial designer with a long list of Apple patents to his name, including the iPod nano, MacBook Air, iPhone 4, and Apple's retail packaging. Christopher Stringer is another prolific designer whose name has been attached to many big products over the years.

All these chaps are up for a grilling, it would seem. It's all part of the patent dispute which started in back in April, with Apple accusing Samsung of "slavishly copying" the look and feel of the iPhone and iPad for its handsets and tablets. Samsung counter-sued, with the dispute ongoing in many countries, and so far Apple has succeeded in banning sales of some of the Korean company's products.

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