Steve Jobs barred from US patent trial

Statements by late Apple CEO Steve Jobs about going 'thermonuclear' on Google's Android operating system won't be considered as part of a patent case currently before the US courts, a local judge has ruled.

Samsung had requested that the comments be considered as part of the case, to demonstrate Apple's 'improper motives' against the operating system, which Samsung uses in its Galaxy tablet.

Apple argued that the statements weren't relevant to the case, and US District Judge Lucy Koh agreed, according to a Reuters report.

"I really don't think this is a trial about Steve Jobs," Koh says.

In full, the Jobs quote reads, "I will spend my last dying breath if I need to, and I will spend every penny of Apple's $40 billion in the bank, to right this wrong. I'm going to destroy Android, because it's a stolen product. I'm willing to go thermonuclear war on this.

A similar stoush between the two companies in the UK has recently resulted in a court order for Apple to post a notice on its website and in several print magazines stating that Samsung has not copied its designs.