The Apple-Samsung trial that ended last week was just the first of many to take place here in the US. Apple filed another lawsuit against the Korean company back in February of this year, which should go to trial sometime next summer.
Originally, the lawsuit was aimed at the Galaxy Nexus and some of Samsung’s other older devices. But on Friday, Apple amended the complaint and added the Galaxy S III, the Galaxy Note, and the new Galaxy Note 10.1 to the patent suit…
Apple believes that these, among other, Samsung products are infringing on 8 of its utility patents. Four of them were asserted in last month’s Samsung vs. Apple trial, and four are brand new: the ‘647 Data detector patent (which it used in last year’s ITC victory against HTC), the ‘721 Slide-to-unlock patent, the ‘172 Word completion patent and the ‘604 Universal search patent, which covers a few things, including Siri assistant.
AppleInsider provides an excerpt from the filing:
“These infringing Samsung products include the at least 21 new smartphones, media players, and tablets that Samsung has released beginning in August 2011 and continuing through August 2012. Specifically, Samsung has imported into, offered for sale, or sold in the United States at least the following products, each of which infringes Apple’s patent rights: the Galaxy S III, Galaxy S III – Verizon, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II – T-Mobile, Galaxy S II – AT&T, Galaxy Nexus, Illusion, Captivate Glide, Exhibit II 4G, Stratosphere, Transform Ultra, Admire, Conquer 4G, and Dart smartphones, the Galaxy Player 4.0 and Galaxy Player 5.0 media players, and the Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablets.”
Earlier this summer, Apple won a preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Nexus based on these patents. But Samsung was granted a pending stay.
So what’s next for these two tech giants? Samsung and Apple are to meet in court again on December 6 to talk about the 8 devices Apple wants banned from the US, and Samsung has vowed to retaliate with a next-gen iPhone lawsuit.
Here’s hoping that someone can put an end to this ridiculousness before it goes much further. We’re looking at you two Tim Cook and Larry Page.