Apple, Samsung Patent Clash Expands to More Models
The menacing part of the Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) Samsung patent infringement war is there’s no defined end point. Who and what does it serve as the two titans’ legal battleground for mobile supremacy widens–which it just did to include the iPhone 5, Samsung’s Galaxy Note tablet and popular Galaxy S III smartphone—is a fair question to ask, often lost in the hand-to-hand combat. Truth is, no one knows not just how the mobile topography will look after the warring ends. More importantly, no one knows if the clashes ever will end or, in modern-day speak, whether this is the new IT normal, as some have long argued.
According to reports, in a prelude to the second patent lawsuit between the two companies (slated for litigation in 2014), U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul Grewal ruled in federal court in San Jose, Calif., that Apple can add Samsung’s Galaxy Note, the U.S. edition of the Galaxy S III smartphone and Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) Android 4.1 operating system to its intellectual property rights claims, while Samsung can include the iPhone 5. Apple’s infringement claims against the Jelly Bean operating systems are confined to those Samsung devices it drives.
Three months ago, a jury awarded Apple $1.05 billion in ruling that Samsung violated six Apple patents. In October, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh lifted the preliminary ban she imposed in June on Samsung’s U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1, ruling there was no good reason to keep the injunction in place after jurors ruled in Apple’s favor. That followed Apple’s move to file court documents claiming that 21 Samsung devices—including smartphones, media players and tablets—selling on the market as of August 2011 copied its technology. Earlier, in February, Apple complained that at least 17 Samsung devices infringed upon its intellectual property rights and subsequently added the Galaxy S III, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet and the Galaxy S II to the list.
Judge Koh in a December hearing will consider Apple’s request for a permanent ban on U.S. sales of eight Samsung smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet as well as Samsung’s bid to get the existing verdict thrown out over juror misconduct.
