By EVAN RAMSTAD
SEOUL?Apple Inc.
formally made Samsung Electronics Co.?s
current flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III, a target Friday in their continuing patent dispute.
Apple
amended a U.S. lawsuit originally filed in February against Samsung to include four more devices, including two versions of the Galaxy S III, that Apple believes violate its patent rights.
Samsung didn?t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The lawsuit is similar to the one filed in April 2011 that started the Apple-Samsung patent battle. That first lawsuit went to trial in U.S. Federal Court in San Jose, Calif., over the past month. On Aug. 24 a jury ruled largely in Apple?s favor and assessed $1 billion in damages against Samsung, which has said it would appeal.
The second lawsuit involves eight Apple patents that are different from the patents in the original case. None involve the physical design of the phone, as several in the first case did. Samsung has countered in the case with eight new patent claims against Apple.
The second case is being heard in the same court and presided over by the same judge, Lucy Koh, as the first. A trial date is tentatively set for March 2014.
In June, Apple signaled it would include the Galaxy S III, which Samsung unveiled in May and started selling in the U.S. in July, in the second case by asking the judge to issue a preliminary injunction to prevent its sale in the U.S. Judge Koh hasn?t acted on the injunction request.
Legal and financial analysts have speculated for months that Apple would target the Galaxy S III. Samsung has said it is its fastest-selling smartphone yet, with more than 10 million units shipped in its first two months.
In reports after the Aug. 24 verdict on the first case, several financial analysts noted the exposure of the Galaxy S III to the second proceeding. However, they noted that by the time the case reaches trial in 2014, Samsung?s smartphone lineup will no longer be anchored by the Galaxy S III and that the company won?t be relying on it for sales and profits.
When the Galaxy S III was released, Samsung executives said they had excluded features that Apple had identified in lawsuits as problem areas, though they weren?t specific.
In addition to the two U.S. models of the Galaxy S III, Apple added the Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet computer and Galaxy Nexus smartphone to the list of Samsung products in the second case, raising the total to 21 from 17.
The original case involved 28 Samsung products, all of which entered the U.S. market in 2010 and 2011. Following the Aug. 24 ruling in that case, Apple asked the court to permanently stop the sale of eight of the 28 Samsung products.
All of Samsung?s products in the dispute with Apple are based on Google Inc.?s
Android operating software, and the legal battle is widely seen as a proxy for Apple?s assertions that Google copied features of Apple?s software.
Samsung launched several new versions of smartphones and other products based on the Google software at a trade show in Europe this past week. It also unveiled a new smartphone and tablet using Microsoft Corp.?s
Windows 8 software.
Write to Evan Ramstad at evan.ramstad@wsj.com
Source: http://justasklegal.com/apple-patent-suit-targets-samsungs-galaxy-s-iii/6290/
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