Mere weeks after the launch of Samsung’s latest flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S4, It’s being reported that Apple is attempting to add the device to the patent lawsuit already underway against Samsung in the United States.
FOSS Patents, via MacRumors:
The filings reveal a major new disagreement: Apple has analyzed the Galaxy S4, Samsung’s new top-selling product, and “has concluded that it is an infringing device and accordingly intends to move for leave to add the Galaxy S4 as an infringing product”. Apple’s current list of 22 accused products does not include the S4, but a footnote contains the statement from which I just quoted. Apple says it will drop another product from its list of 22 accused products once it has permission to add the S4 to this litigation.
Judge Lucy Koh has already ordered both Apple and Samsung to narrow their case, which is expected to go to trial in March 2014. Ultimately each side is being required to limit their cases to ten targeted devices, however the current stage does allow each company to carry 22 devices on their lists.
The two sides have major disagreements over what constitutes a single product, with Samsung arguing that each carrier version of its devices should count as a separate product, seeking to gain an advantage because of its significantly larger number of devices when compared to Apple’s lineup.
Although the legal spat between Apple and Samsung has been focused on mobile devices until now, Samsung’s counterpunches have sought to bring Apple’s Mac lineup and services into the dispute for what they claim is the infringement of a patent related to multimedia synchronization across devices.
