The wisdom of Abraham Lincoln made a perhaps long-overdue appearance in the high-stakes patent infringement battle between Apple and Samsung.
U.S. District Court Judge Paul Grewal implored lawyers representing each company to take heed of Lincoln’s words and find middle ground on some of the issues they spend hours arguing about in front of the court.
“Before he spoke of houses divided, proclaimed emancipation and saved our union, Abraham Lincoln was just another trial lawyer in the woods of Illinois. A decade before he was elected president, Lincoln wrote to his fellow lawyers: ‘Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. As a peacemaker, the lawyer has superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough,’” Grewal wrote in an order issued Wednesday to set the date and time for a meeting Thursday.
“Thinking further about [Tuesday’s] hearing, the undersigned can only wonder at how often Lincoln’s advice about compromise has been ignored in this case. However quaint or naive it may sound today, it is still advice worth taking.”
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