As promised last month, Samsung has filed a motion against Apple claiming the iPhone 5 infringes on several patents owned by the South Korean company. Cupertino’s latest handset will be added to a pending lawsuit against previous iPhone, iPad and iPod touch models that allegedly infringe on the same patents.
It was believed that Samsung was going to target the iPhone 5 over specific 4G LTE patents but that doesn’t appear to be the case. According to Mobile Burn, Samsung says the latest iPhone violates two standard patents and six design patents. Samsung said in a statement that they prefer to compete in the marketplace rather than in court rooms but with the iPhone 5, they had little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect their innovations and intellectual property rights.
A trial has been set for some time in 2014 unless the two parties can come to an agreement out of court ahead of time. Despite having met multiple times to resolve disputes, not much has been settled on their own thus far.
Meanwhile, US District Court Judge Lucy Koh lifted a sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet that she imposed earlier this year. The ban was put in place before the most recent patent trial but the jury found that Samsung hadn’t violated the Apple design patent that the injunction was based on. That could be good news for Samsung as we head into the lucrative holiday buying season.
