Samsung Takes On Apple In The French Courts

Samsung filed a legal complaint inFrance against Apple, extending a worldwide courtroom battle in which each company is accusing the other of intellectual-property violations.

“The complaint focuses on three technology patents, and not on the design of the tablets,” a Samsung spokesperson told Agence France-Presse, which reported that the first court hearing is scheduled for December.

German Win Boosts Apple

Samsung and Apple have fired lawsuits at each other in a number of countries, including the United States, Japan and Australia. Both sides claim their rival’s products violate existing patents, but Apple has taken its complaints one step further by accusing Samsung of outright copying of its designs.

In Germany, Apple won an injunction against Samsung on the grounds of patent infringement, forcing the latter to halt production of the Galaxy Tab there. Samsung withdrew the device from the IFA trade show in Berlin, with a spokesperson telling Bloomberg that it respected “the court’s decision”.

The legal battle has extended to Japan, where Apple asked a court to ban a selection of Samsung devices.

Unnamed sources told Reuters on 8 September that Apple “has filed suit with the Tokyo District Court seeking the suspension of sales of Galaxy S and its sequel S II smartphones and the Galaxy Tab 7”.

Both companies are prepping high-profile releases. Apple’s next smartphone, dubbed “iPhone 5” by the media, will reportedly arrive in October. Meanwhile, Samsung’s steady cadence of increasingly powerful Android tablet and smartphone releases suggests it is trying to become more of a dominant player in the mobility space.

Apple has lodged other patent-infringement suits against HTC and Motorola, and recently settled an intellectual-property dispute with Nokia. Apple originally filed its case against Samsung with the US District Court of Northern California, alleging that the look, packaging and user interfaces of Samsung’s smartphones and tablets have copied the iPhone and iPad too closely.