Saturday, September 1, 2012

Apple targets the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note

Apple targets the Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note

After last week's $1B verdict, it amends a second patent suit to cover 21 new devices


FORTUNE -- Claiming that Samsung has "continued to flood the market with copycat products," Apple (AAPL) on Friday asked a federal court in San Jose for a new jury trial to rule on 21 more "infringing products" -- including Samsung's best-selling Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note.


The filing, an amendment to a suit filed in February, comes one week to the day after a Silicon Valley jury socked Samsung with $1.05 billion in damages for infringing Apple patents with a wave of older devices running Google's (GOOG) Android operating system.

The new case -- not to be confused with what Apple now refers to as "the Earlier Case" -- targets 21 more Android phones and tablets released by Samsung between August 2011 and August 2012, chief among them the Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note.

The Note is the 5.3-inch hybrid tablet/phone with which Samsung attacked the iPhone in TV ads mocking the diehard fans who queue up for latest Apple product.

The "flagship" Galaxy S III smartphone, introduced in June, was particularly well reviewed -- CNET awarded it an Editor's Choice rating -- and sold briskly. According to Samsung, it took the company less than a month to sell 10 million units, helping vault Samsung -- and Android -- well ahead of Apple and iOS in this summer's race for smartphone supremacy.

The amended complaint charges that with these 21 products, Samsung has infringed on eight additional Apple patents. They are, according to the filing:

'647 -- system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer generated data
'959 -- universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system
'721 -- unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image
'172 -- method, system and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations
'760 -- missed telephone call management for a portable multifunction device
'502 -- graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes
'414 -- asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices
'604 -- universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system

The trial is tentatively scheduled for March 2014.

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