Samsung Counter-Sues Apple with 10 Patent Infringement Claims

On April 16th, Apple filed a trademark infringement suit against Samsung with the U.S. District Court in North California. If you thought Samsung was just going to stand around, you thought wrong.

Apple originally filed a lawsuit against Samsung because it claimed Samsung’s Galaxy S Android smartphones and new Galaxy Tab tablet violate Apple’s intellectual property rights in regards to hardware design and user interface. Samsung last week returned the favor and counter-sued Apple, claiming that it has infringed 10 of its patents that have to do with “fundamental innovations that increase mobile device reliability, efficiency, and quality, and improve user interface in mobile handsets and other products”.

Samsung now filed another lawsuit against Apple in the U.S. 

“The lawsuit intensifies a legal dispute that began when Cupertino, California-based Apple sued Samsung earlier this month, claiming the Galaxy products “slavishly” copied iPad and iPhone technology and design. Samsung, which is also a supplier of some Apple chips, retaliated last week with lawsuits in Seoul, Tokyo and Mannheim, Germany.

In the U.S. complaint, Samsung accuses Apple of violating patents that “relate to fundamental innovations that increase mobile device reliability, efficiency, and quality, and improve user interface in mobile handsets and other products.”

The patented technology includes ways that a phone allows calls and Internet surfing at the same time; improvements in how text messages and attachments are sent; reductions in interference among mobile devices; and increases in the capacity of mobile networks, according to the complaint.”

A Samsung spokesperson told CNET that the following patents have been violated:

• HSPA telecommunications technology for transmission optimization and the reduction of power usage during data transmission,
• WCDMA telecommunications technology for reducing date transmission errors, and
• technology for tethering a mobile phone to a PC to enable the PC to utilize the phone’s wireless data connection.

Evidently, Apple is Samsung’s single largest customer, providing many parts found in the iPhone such as the A4 and A5 processors, as well as LCD displays, and flash memory.

Let’s see how this lawsuit plays out in the courts.

What do you think? Will Apple win this case?

[9to5Mac]