Samsung Wants iPad Mini, iPad 4 And iPod Touch Added To Apple Patent Lawsuit

Samsung has requested that the iPad Mini, iPad 4 and fifth-generation iPod Touch be added to its upcoming patent lawsuit against Apple.

The two parties are due to go to trial in March 2014, meaning that additional products can be added until closer the time. Last week, the same court ruled that the iPhone 5 could be included in the litigation.

Samsung said it believes the recently announced iDevices infringe the same patents that it alleges other Apple products violate, but they were not yet available when Samsung brought its previous motion.

iPad Mini patent lawsuit

The iPad Mini and iPad 4 were announced on 24 October and released earlier this month while the iPod Touch was announced before the motion on 12 September, but released after 9 October.

Judge Paul Grewal has previously indicated that the motion to include the iPads will most likely be accepted after he warned Apple not to oppose the inclusion of new products. However, analyst Florian Mueller has suggested the court’s permissive attitude might even favour Apple as it will allow it to bring more amendments.

“Samsung has a broader range of product offerings,” said Mueller. “Also, Android update cycles are shorter than Apple’s.”

But Mueller warned that the iPod situation might not be as clear cut as Samsung isn’t sure if it has attacked previous generation iPods in sufficiently clear form.

“Judge Grewal’s warning to Apple that it should not waste everyone’s time by opposing the addition of the iPad 4 and iPad Mini therefore does not necessarily apply to the iPod question,” explained Mueller. “It’s a threshold issue.”

Despite this Mueller added: “I think Samsung also has a pretty good chance of its motion being granted.”

The Apple Samsung patent war

Earlier this week, the same judge ordered Apple and HTC to reveal their ten-year patent licensing agreement to Samsung’s lawyers, but not the general public. Samsung had argued the deal would cover some of the patents involved in its dispute with Apple, which said it had no problem revealing the details, but it would have to ask HTC first. HTC said that it was also willing, but objected to disclosing 33 words that set the license fees due under the agreement.

In a previous trial, a US court ordered Samsung to pay Apple £600 million in damages for infringing on various Apple patents in the design of Samsung’s own tablet computers and smartphones.  Samsung is trying to overturn the verdict by arguing that Velvin Hogan, the jury foreman, failed to disclose litigation in which he was involved that could have indicated bias against Samsung.

A hearing is scheduled for 6 December in a California courthouse to hear Samsung’s argument that juror misconduct should prompt a judge to order a new trial.

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