Its War, Samsung: Apple Attacks 17 Androids
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Steve Jobs would be proud as Apple attack arch foe Samsung and Android on all corners. 17 of them in fact. And that’s only its most recent claim.


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Not content with suing Samsung over Galaxy S and S II smartphone, Nexus and various Tabs’s (including 10.1 here in Oz) Cupertino is now going hell for leather, claiming the Korean’s are infringing upon its technology patents on thirteen phones, two music players and two tablets, reports Foss Patents.

This comes after it has emerged Apple’s latest claim, filed last week at the US District Court California against bitter rivals Samsung, seeking to ban the sale of its flagship Google Nexus running Android’s new Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0, claiming the hyped smartphone infringes upon four of its intellectual patents used on iPhone including Siri and auto spell technology.

Samsung collaborated closely with Google to develop the first Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 smartie so this lawsuit hits straight into the heart of iOS’s rival platform, also.

Read: ‘The Great War’: iPhone 5 V Galaxy S3 Showdown

Apple’s now deceased boss, Steve Jobs, was said to have been ‘livid’ when Google Android entered the smartphone industry, particularly when HTC launched its first Android OS touch phone, vowing to “right this wrong” believing it replicated technology introduced by iPhone.

Jobs also famously declared “thermoneuclear war” on the rival platform after it launched in 2008, promising he would “destroy Android, because it’s a stolen product. I’m willing to go thermonuclear war on this.”

However, it now appears the Nexus is the least of Samsung’s (or Google’s) worries with Cupertino looking to take out seventeen of its devices in all, all or most of of which operate on Android and if Apple’sclaims are successful could have implications for other devices also.

Here’s the full list of all the Samsung Galaxy’s now to stand trial, according to the report.

 

Samsung’s Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, and Galaxy S II, the Galaxy Nexus, Illusion, Captivate Glide, Exhibit II 4G, Stratosphere, Transform Ultra, Admire, Conquer 4G and Dart.

However, some of these devices are not available in Australia including several of the latter models.

On the media player front, Apple are seeking to ban iPod rivals Galaxy Player 4.0 and 5.0, announced earlier this year.

Tabs wise, the Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9 are also to be put in the dock. Apple alleges the seventeen Galaxy’s infringe upon eight patents in total.

Here are the four patents the iPhone maker alleges Google Nexus infringes:

Slide-to-unlock, where users gain access to their phones by sliding an image of a button across the screen, word completion innovation that improves entering text, an element of Apple’s Siri voice-search technology as well as a technology which detects information in an email, that a user can tap on to quickly to make a phone call, known as “data-tapping.”

Two of these patents Apple already claimed HTC Android devices infringed and successfully got a ban on the devices that peruse the technology in December following a case heard before the International Trade Commission.

The additional four additional patents Apple are claiming Samsung pinched, as listed by Foss Patents includes:

U.S. Patent No’s 6,847,959, which relates to “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system”, 8,014,760 relating to “missed telephone call management for a portable multifunction device”, 7,761,414 on “asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices” and 5,666,502 for “graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes.”

And it looks like Apple, after court losses here in Australia an in several European courts last year have done their homework properly this time round says Foss Patent guru, Florian Mueller, who notes, “Apple’s complaint is very concise.”

“Last year’s complaint against Samsung had a lot of (very well-crafted) narrative on Samsung’s alleged copying of Apple’s products. The new complaint doesn’t have to repeat much of that. It basically just explains that the alleged problem has exacerbated, and brings new claims.”

And it looks like Cupertino’s lawyers have been busy.

 

Last week, Apple also launched a new “antisuit lawsuit” aimed at unravelling Motorola’s litigation efforts which attempts to block sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S using standards essential patents, which all makers have the right to use.

Apple is also asking for damages that could reach multibillion-dollar figures. And its worth noting Euroepan and US regulators approved Google’s controversial $12.5bn takeover of Motorola, this week, which will give its access to at least 17,500 patents now and several thousand more to come.

This lawsuit is going to be huge,” Mueller believes. And it looks like he’s right. 

Thermoneuclear war, indeed.