The Samsung Galaxy S III is already available in the U.K. Photo: Nathan Olivarez-Giles/Wired
The legal tug of war between Apple and Samsung continues as Samsung’s latest handset — which is scheduled for sale in the U.S. later this month — has come under the fire of Apple’s legal team. Apple lawyers say the Galaxy S III smartphone infringes on a pair of its U.S. patents, and thus shouldn’t be allowed for sale in the States.
“Apple has been able to obtain the Galaxy S III sold in the United Kingdom and determined that this device clearly infringes at least two of the Apple patents at issue in the preliminary injunction motion for the exact same reasons as the Galaxy Nexus,” Apple’s filing reads. “Apple requested that Samsung confirm that it would not launch the Galaxy S III in the United States until this Court has had such an opportunity [to rule upon Apple's motion for a preliminary injunction].”
The two patents in question are U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 and No. 8,086,604. The first deals with “links for structures” in computer-generated data while the latter covers an interface for “unified search.”
Samsung is Apple’s biggest competitor in the global smartphone market. From quarter to quarter, the companies seesaw between who owns the top spot as the world’s leading smartphone manufacturer. Perhaps fueling Apple’s IP-driven quest is the fact that Samsung just edged out Apple in the first quarter of this year.
The two tech giants have also been duking it out in courts across the globe over design-related patent infringements. The two recently met in court to settle their differences, but to no avail. On Tuesday, courts denied Apple a request to ban the sale of the iPad-like Galaxy Tab 10.1 in the U.S.
“From our point of view, it’s important that Apple not be the developer for the world,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said at the recent D10 conference. “We take all of our energy and all of our care, and to have someone else put their name on it? The worst thing in the world that can happen to you if you’re an engineer and you’ve given your life to something is for someone to rip it off and put their name on it. We just don’t want people ripping us off.”
Samsung, however, asserts that it’s not ripping off Apple, and the South Korean company will oppose Apple’s move to block U.S. Galaxy S III sales. In a statement, the company said that it will “demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive” and that Samsung wants to assure customers that the Galaxy S III launch will “proceed as planned.”
Apple told CNET in a statement: “It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
Source: http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/06/apple-samsung-galaxy-s-iii/
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