Judge denies adding Galaxy S4 to Apple suit

Galaxy S4 iPhone 5

Apple’s plan to add Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S4 smartphone to its second California suit has just hit a major roadblock as U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal just denied Apple’s request on the ground that it would be a “a tax on the court’s resources”. A lawyer for Apple told the judge that excluding the Galaxy S4 “would require Apple to file a new lawsuit” because the Samsung products covered by the case will be out of date by trial next year, Bloomberg reported Thursday…

According to the news organization, Grewal noted the following in the ruling:

Each time these parties appear in the courtroom, they consume considerable amounts of the court’s time and energy, which takes time way from other parties who also require and are entitled to the court’s attention.

Patent blogger Florian Müeller nails it:

The real problem is that as long as Apple and Samsung don’t settle, but Samsung continues to launch devices Apple considers to infringe on its IP, Apple will be forced to bring new lawsuits to go after additional products.  

He’s right about that.

This litigation is already ridiculous and consuming energies of both parties, even considering that a U.S. jury found Samsung guilty of infringing upon Apple’s patents last August, awarding Apple a cool $1.05 billion in damages, which was later slashed to $600 million.

A new damages trial scheduled for November will determine damages for some of the products included in this case. Apple in a separate filing also claimed that Google’s Google Now feature and the Galaxy S4 software violate its two Siri patents and five other inventions.