The trial for the United States Department of Justice versus Apple, MacMillan, and Penguin has
slowly begun to form a proposed timeline. Interestingly enough, it would appear that the parties
involved have conflicting opinions about how said timeline should be implemented.
It would appear that Apple is interested in expediting this process as quickly as possible. Under
their proposal, fact discovery would come to an end by December 7 of this year. A summary
judgment motion is anticipated by January 14, 2013. With all the preliminary work out of the
way, Apple hopes to get the trial started by March 26, 2013.
The two publishing companies, Macmillan and Penguin, seem to lack Apple’s zeal for a swift
trial date, opting instead to propose a more extended timeline. The two companies would like to
see fact discovery lasting until April 1, 2013. The duo expects that summary judgment motions
would follow around August 19, 2013. Macmillan and Penguin appear unsure about a proposed
court date; however, based on their timeline, a trial might not even occur by the end of next year.
The Department of Justice’s timeline acts as something of a happy medium of the previous two,
with the proposed dates falling somewhere between those specified by the defendants. The DOJ
wants to see fact discovery wrapped up by March 22, 2013. Summary judgments are expected to
occur by July 13, 2013. Finally, the DOJ expects trial to enter court by September 30, 2013.
The coming weeks will likely see further debate over the proposed timelines. Given the
surprisingly large gaps in time between Apple and the publisher’s proposals, it seems likely that
the timeline suggested by the DOJ will win out in the end.