Apple sues Samsung in South Korea

Apple has sued Samsung in that company's home country of South Korea, after Samsung sued Apple there in April.

The companies are now engaged in smartphone-related legal battles in several countries. Apple kicked things off in April by suing Samsung in US for the alleged "blatant copying" of its iOS devices. Shortly afterwards, Samsung launched retaliatory suits in the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea, accusing Apple of infringing on 10 Samsung patents.

Despite the close supply relationship between the two companies — Samsung makes many of the components used in iPhones — the fight between Apple and Samsung had been increasingly bitter, with Apple recently accusing Samsung of harassment for wanting to see the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 before their release.

Apple's latest salvo was announced on Friday, shortly after Apple said high-level executives from both companies were in talks about the litigation. Patent attorney Matt Macari theorised on his Litigating Apple blog on Friday that settlement talks between Apple and Samsung may be at an "embryonic" stage.

"Patent infringement suits are not filed on a whim," Macari wrote. "The initiation of this new case in South Korea has likely been in the works for some time... While many of Apple's Korean patents may be directly related to US counterpart patents already asserted against Samsung in the US, the scope of the patent claims may be meaningfully different between the portfolios. As such, it is unlikely that an exact mirroring of the US and Korean infringement allegations was possible."