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Topic: Apple

Apple targets Galaxy SIII, Note in US patent suit

Summary: Apple has added the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note to its list of Android products that it claims violates Apple's patents.

Josh Taylor

By |

After securing a major court victory just over a week ago, Apple has amended its filing in another patent suit against Samsung, claiming the Samsung Galaxy SIII and Galaxy Note violates a number of patents held by the Cupertino, California-based tech giant.

Galaxy SIII
(Credit: Samsung )

The filing, first spotted by Apple Insider, was made on Friday and claims that the devices infringe on eight Apple patents, including the universal search patent, slide to unlock, and word completion patents.

Apple is targeting 21 devices released between August 2011 and August 2012: Galaxy S III, Verizon Galaxy S III, 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, Dart smartphones, Galaxy Player 4.0, Galaxy Player 5.0, Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, and Galaxy Tab 8.9.

Apple in its filing said that, despite the other lawsuit before Judge Lucy Koh, Samsung "continued to flood the market with copycat products," and the lawsuit is seeking to put an end to Samsung's actions.

"Samsung has systematically copied Apple's innovative technology and products, features, and designs, and has deluged markets with infringing devices in an effort to usurp market share from Apple. Instead of pursuing independent product development, Samsung slavishly copied Apple's innovative technology, with its elegant and distinctive user interfaces product design, in violation of Apple's valuable intellectual property rights," Apple said in its filing.

It is unclear whether this new filing will have any impact on the ongoing Australian case. No new filings have been made since August 29, and Apple's Australian spokesperson declined to comment when asked about it by ZDNet.

A hearing on whether the devices will be banned is scheduled to be heard in December. A Samsung executive was reported as saying that the company may even consider altering the functionality of these devices to ensure that they remain on the market in the US.

Amended Galaxy Complaint

Topics: Apple, Patents, Samsung

About

Armed with a degree in Computer Science and a Masters in Journalism, Josh keeps a close eye on the telecommunications industry and all the goings on in government IT. Like most Gen Y, he spends a lot of his time with his eyes glued to his iPhone on various social media apps.

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85 comments
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  • Apple...rotten to the core?

    Apple has won the case in the US on its own home turf but not necessarily so overseas. What dopes that mean?
    Apple must be feeling the heat that it must protect its back end as the front end of development is not moving as fast as it used to...the dogs are biting the heels of Apple. Rather than sprint forward it is now distracted. As Churchill said “You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks”.
    My respect for Apple remains diminished.
    Bradish@...
    Reply 40 Votes

    • Absolutely correct

      I've noticed that while the original iPads and early iPhones came with very beautiful distinguishing features and new functionality, the later editions are little more than simple hardware upgrades. Any vendor can offer hardware upgrades. And while Apple's back is turned, busily filing patent lawsuits, Microsoft has been quietly creeping into the mobile space and is now poised to pull off something BIG.
      Fools_Muse
      Reply 1 Vote

      • Not true!

        Apple completely redesigns the iPhone every two years. The second year is the same design with significant hardware upgrades. The iPad seems to be following the same pattern. Sorry they can't redefine the mobile space more often than once every two years. I know the Android hardware vendors are all waiting around impatiently to see what ideas they can steal for their next releases. They'll have to wait until later this month.

        MS is poised to pull off nothing! They have just bolted a crappy half-assed touch home screen onto regular old crappy desktop Windows. The only thing keeping MS afloat is millions of IT zombies recruited in the 1990s to support their garbage products in the enterprise. No MS cut-rate crap products in the enterprise = fewer IT jobs.
        RationalGuy
        Reply 2 Votes

        • Exactly!

          Apple seem to being something similar to Intel's tick-tock approach.
          Restricted_access
          Reply Vote

        • Apple "redesigns" the iPhone every two years?

          You look at a first generation of iPhone and the latest model -- they have essentially the same design! You look at an iPad and an iPod, it's the same thing that it's makes me think iOS devices are really short on ideas and getting stale.

          Nothing wrong with that though from a business standpoint -- I do think consistency of user interface over the years is an important selling point as users do not have to spend time and effort in relearning every time they change the phone.
          CyberGuerilla
          Reply Vote

    • apple will fail

      Analysts and journalists are predicting the crumbling of the apple lawsuit: http://techrights.org/2012/08/25/jury-provision-re-android/
      Apple will soon join M$ in the market share bracket around 1%!
      LlNUX Geek
      Reply Vote

    • Mais Non

      Reasonable comments Bradish but the reality is that Corporations the size of Apple are noy focussing resources into a single strategy (i.e. litigate the shit out of Samsung) any more than Samsung is designing devices to piss Apple off. Most commentary on Apple's and Samsungs and IBM's etc etc corporate strategies in these forums (should be 'fora' but no-one knows what that means) is completely naive and uninformed. Don't read the crap here from forum contributors (bless 'em they build ZDNET's value), most them (especially the empoyees of Apple et al) have a single clue as to the strategies their own companies are running - these companies are not stupid, they do not share that stuff with their low-level developers.

      Bottom line? Most people in these forums are speaking complete shit.
      Mr Hawtin
      Reply Vote

  • Apple Cannot Target Them Fast Enough

    Most of the devices it sued about in the trial just concluded were obsolete anyway. It’ll hit the same problem with this suit: by the time it comes to trial, nobody will care about the SIII and existing Note models.

    And it has yet to collect on the previous verdict anyway. Odds are that will be partially or completely set aside.
    ldo17
    Reply 13 Votes

    • Press 'em while you can

      This move is a ploy to get Samsung to the negotiating table. You can say all you want that "odds are" that the verdict will be set aside; Samsung's U.S. lawyers are probably saying the same thing. But they don't have a lot of credibility at the moment. A ban on the Galaxy S III does seem very unlikely, but the verdict Apple already got seemed unlikely only a week ago. The people running Samsung have to seriously consider the possibility that a big chunk of their product line could be off the shelves in the United States. Maybe it's time to cut a deal.
      Robert Hahn
      Reply 4 Votes

      • @Rob

        >>But they don't have a lot of credibility at the moment.
        Reminds of:
        -- Cain, brother, why are you killing me?
        -- You know what, bro Abel, you don't have a lot of credibility at the moment...
        eulampius
        Reply 8 Votes

        • Samsung's US Lawyers do NOT have a lot of credibility

          Your trolling snarky remarks aside Samsung's US lawyers had a shaky case from the beginning, when they released that so-called evidence to the public after it had been rejected by the court showed that. The subsequent verdict by the jury and by the judge proved that the case was shaky and that Samsung was indeed violating Apple's IP.

          Samsung's management can either stop with their "We can copy whatever we want too" attitude and work with Apple as they should have in the beginning or they can keep being brought to court and keep losing.
          NonFanboy
          Reply 1 Vote

          • Naive

            Articulately put, BUT NAIVE AND but lacking basic commercial common sense. Why is Apple chasing Samsung?

            1) To stop Samsung making money from an existing product line? iF THIS WERE THE CASE
            Mr Hawtin
            Reply 1 Vote

          • Naive

            Articulately put, but naive and lacking basic commercial common sense. Why is Apple chasing Samsung?

            1) To stop Samsung making money from an existing product line? If this was the case, they cannot win. As mentioned above, the GIII will have been replaced by another product.
            2) To send a message to all other manufacturers (inc Samsung) that they are defending their fenceline and will bite anyone crossing the boundary. Problem with this is that Android is not Samsung, it is at least a dozen other manufacturers. Apple will be fighting many fronts, and they will not win every suit, in fact the odds are that they will lose more suits than they win. The outcome of that is that they are only playing to their own fan base. They are not converting anyone with this strategy, and they may actually be perceived as stultifying innovation, not encouraging it.

            This is not a tough argument to sell: "Trust us to make the most advanced innovations and help us to shut down others competing with us because we have your best interests at heart". Hmmm, you know what? No.

            3) To pull off a miracle play: Get a rogue decision to ban all Samsung products (even temporarily). Nah, this is so dumb even Apple in their self-absorption would not consider this.

            So why are Apple doing this, and making this issue the big PR thing? Lack of innovation, development?
            Mr Hawtin
            Reply Vote

          • Apple's products getting stale, taking ONE WHOLE YEAR to catch up on LTE?

            In the world of mobile technology, this is totally unacceptable.

            What I see is a company short in new ideas resorting to suing to block other "competitors" from "copying" and leapfrogging them.
            CyberGuerilla
            Reply Vote

  • Facing Irrelevance....

    Apple is doing the only thing it can do...sue! The iPhone may have been "magical" and "revolutionary" in 2007 but now it's an also ran. Sure, it sells like hotcakes. So do Honda Civics and Hyundai Sanatas....
    cj100570@...
    Reply 17 Votes

    • If it's an "also ran"

      Then why is Samsung to hot and heavy about infringing upon it's IP?
      NonFanboy
      Reply 1 Vote

      • The two largest pieces of IP that were infringed

        should never have been issued in the first place. Apple didn't make the first pinch to zoom device, and they certainly didn't invent the concept.
        blarelli
        Reply Vote

        • according to who?

          you? you say it should never have been issued? based on what?
          clothes have been around a long time. camouflage too. yet the us marine corps holds several patents on camouflage and combat uniforms. you saying they should never have been given those patents?
          oneleft
          Reply Vote

  • Does ANYONE have any trouble distinguishing G SIII, Note from an iPhone?

    Good lord. These things are what Apple wishes the iPhone 5 looked like. Different size (much bigger), different shape (much thinner, more interestingly rounded), and with a vastly improved UI (can we please sue Apple for "stealing" the look and feel of the Android notification bar?)

    If Apple is allowed to lay claim to all white or black rectangles in the 4-inch ballpark, then surely Samsung has the right to own the space THEY occupied first, the medium-rounded rectangles which are thinner and in the 5 inch region.... right?

    Or does Apple own ALL possible shapes forms and sizes they might ever dream of making?
    spark555
    Reply 36 Votes

    • Did you even read the article?

      This has nothing to do with the design patents.
      msalzberg
      Reply 2 Votes
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