As reported by the good people at AppleInsider via Network World, a motion filed by Apple in its case against Samsung in northern California revealed some pretty serious allegations about Samsung’s data retention policy:

Apple’s filing asserts that Samsung destroyed “vast quantities of relevant evidence in blatant disregard of its duty to preserve all such evidence.”

That’s pretty heavy language to put in a filing. How could it be possible for Samsung to dispose of “evidence” without malicious intent?

At issue is Samsung’s company policy of automatically deleting e-mails from custodian computers every two weeks, even if the company is required to keep e-mail evidence relevant to an ongoing case.

That’s a pretty convenient policy for a company that’s embroiled in legal battles with Apple all over the world. I’d be curious to see if Samsung’s “2 week corporate memory” policy is in place worldwide. My guess is “no”.

So Samsung countersues using frivolous patents in an attempt to get Apple to drop their claims, stands accused of willfully withholding source code mandated to be procured by the court and is now being accused of trashing evidence. Their strategy appears to be working. It’s been over a year and Apple still hasn’t had its day court in its own country and Samsung has been ripping off Apple’s IP every day this drags on. I wonder if Samsung has themselves a good laugh back at the mothership in South Korea when they talk about our legal system. I sure would.