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Samsung sues Apple back in Aussie court

Making good on a legal threat made three weeks ago in the Federal Court of New South Wales, Korean electronics giant Samsung has counter-sued Apple for intellectual property and patent infringement violations, targeting almost all of Apple's mobile gadget range, including the iPhone 3G, 3Gs, iPhone 4 and iPad 2.
Written by Luke Hopewell, Contributor

Making good on a legal threat made three weeks ago in the Federal Court of New South Wales, Korean electronics giant Samsung has counter-sued Apple for intellectual property and patent infringement violations, targeting almost all of Apple's mobile gadget range, including the iPhone 3G, 3Gs, iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Samsung has sued Apple for the alleged violation of seven of its patents by various iDevices, filing a claim in the Federal Court of NSW yesterday.

The seven patents Samsung alleges Apple has broken include patents for methods of data transmission and decoding, power management and mobile data management.

These include:

  • Australian Patent No. 2000058543: apparatus and method for encoding/decoding transport format combination indicator in CDMA mobile communication system
  • Australian Patent No. 2005239657: method and apparatus for transmitting and receiving data with high reliability in a mobile communication system supporting packet data transmission
  • Australian Patent No. 1999030568: turbo encoding/decoding device and method for processing frame data according to QoS
  • Australian Patent No. 2000057112: apparatus and method for controlling a demultiplexer and a multiplexer used for rate matching in a mobile communication system
  • Australian Patent No. 2005213087: apparatus and method for allocating OVSF codes and I/Q channels for reducing peak-to-average power ratio in transmitting data via enhanced uplink dedicated channels in WCDMA systems
  • Australian Patent No. 2005202512: method and apparatus for data transmission in a mobile telecommunication system supporting enhanced uplink service
  • Australian Patent No. 2006241621: method and apparatus for transmitting/receiving packet data using predefined length indicator in a mobile communication system.

Samsung's claim also calls for Apple to drop its existing patent battle with the Korean company in the Australian court. Its statement said:

On 16 September 2011, Samsung Electronics filed a cross claim with the Federal Court of Australia, New South Wales Registry regarding two things:

  1. Apple's infringement of seven Australian patents owned by Samsung related to wireless communications standards by the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad 2 products; and
  2. that the patents that Apple relies on in its claims against Samsung in relation to the Galaxy Tab 10.1 are invalid and should be revoked by the court.

Samsung has a proud history of innovation in the mobile industry. It has invested continuously in R&D, design and technology to produce our innovative and cutting-edge mobile devices. To defend our intellectual property, Samsung filed a cross claim for Apple's violation of its wireless technology patents.

Samsung had originally been sued by Apple for alleged patent violations in the Samsung Galaxy 10.1 tablet. The case has been before the court since early August.

Apple alleged in its original suit that Samsung had breached several of its patents, including those pertaining to "slide-to-unlock" and "edge-bump" functionalities.

Samsung pointed out that Apple was basing its case on the US version of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 and after much legal wrangling between the parties, Apple and Samsung came to an initial agreement that saw the Korean gadget maker provide Apple Australia with three of the proposed Australian versions of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 for study.

Samsung later agreed to delay the device's release date into the Australian market until the last week of September to talk over the matter.

Since then the two parties have squabbled over the impact the Galaxy Tab 10.1 has had on iPad sales in international markets, while Samsung has been somewhat reluctant to divulge the exact differences between the US and Australian model of the Galaxy Tab 10.1.

Similar cases have also cropped up in other legal jurisdictions around the world, including in Europe, where cases have just been filed in France and the UK, with Apple winning an injunction against the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. Another case has been filed in Japan.

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