Samsung Strikes Back Against Apple: Files Patent Suit Against iPhone 5 In U.S. Court

Natasha is a reporter for TechCrunch, joining September 2012, based out of London. She arrives after a stint reviewing smartphones for CNET UK and, prior to that, more than five years covering business technology for silicon.com (now folded into TechRepublic.com). At silicon she focused on mobile and wireless, telecoms and networking, and IT skills issues, and has also freelanced... â†' Learn More

As expected , Samsung has filed a lawsuit against Apple’s latest iPhone â€" the iPhone 5 â€" alleging the smartphone infringes patents it holds.  Commenting on the action in a statement given to Reuters, Samsung said: “We have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.”

We’ve contacted Samsung for further comment and details of the disputed patents and will update if we hear back. Samsung provided the following full statement: “We have always preferred to compete in the marketplace with our innovative products, rather than in a courtroom. However, Apple continues to take aggressive legal action that will restrict market competition. Under these circumstances, we have little recourse but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.” 

At the time of writing Apple had also not responded to a request for comment.

According to Florian Mueller of the FOSS patents blog [1] , the lawsuit was filed about an hour before the Northern District Court of Californian’s  Judge Koh’s dissolved a preliminary injunction banning sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet in the U.S. â€" an overhang from another big bout of patent litigation between the two companies in which Apple won damages of more than $1 billion .

“Samsung formally filed a request with the court in a parallel Apple v. Samsung two-way litigation (which started in February 2012) to add the iPhone 5 to the list of products accused of infringing eight Samsung patents,” Mueller notes.

The eight patents in question are the same patents Samsung asserted against Apple’s iPhone back in April. FOSS Patents [2] has the full list.

One technology in the iPhone 5 that could become a nexus for patent dispute is 4G LTE â€" which Apple has previously only included in the iPad. Apple’s competitors, including Samsung, have previously warned Apple they will sue if it adds LTE to the iPhone and seek a U.S. sales ban.

April 1, 1976

NASDAQ:AAPL

Started by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and Ronald Wayne, Apple has expanded from computers to consumer electronics over the last 30 years, officially changing their name from Apple Computer, Inc. to Apple, Inc. in January 2007. Among the key offerings from Apple’s product line are: Pro line laptops (MacBook Pro) and desktops (Mac Pro), consumer line laptops (MacBook Air) and desktops (iMac), servers (Xserve), Apple TV, the Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server operating systems, the iPod, the...

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The iPhone 5 is a smartphone developed by Apple. It was announced on September 12, 2012, and it includes many new features, including the following: A lighter and thinner design A larger, 4-inch screen with a 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio A new, 8-pin dock connector The new Apple A6 processor LTE Support The iPhone 5 was available for pre-order on September 14, 2012, and began shipping on September 21, 2012. Like its predecessor, the iPhone 4S, it is offered by AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint in...

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Links

1. ^{^} FOSS patents blog (www.fosspatents.com)
2. ^{^} FOSS Patents (www.fosspatents.com)
3. ^{^} â†' Learn more (www.crunchbase.com)
4. ^{^} â†' Learn more (www.crunchbase.com)

source: techcrunch.com