If you were thinking that Apple didn’t have any more complaining to do in the courts when it comes to both Samsung and Android, then you’d be wrong. In their second round of patent litigation against Samsung, Apple have added the Galaxy S4 to the list, along with another, more widespread Android target; Google Now. Apple have filed their new motion, with 5 patents apparently infringed upon by the Galaxy S4 and 2 more that target Google Now. Apple’s key statement in the motion was this:
“Apple determined that the Galaxy S4 product practices many of the same claims already asserted by Apple, and that the Galaxy S4 practices those claims in the same way as the already-accused Samsung devices.”
It definitely seems that Apple are going after Samsung’s Galaxy S4 here, rather than Google Now, there’s no mention of the Google Edition of the Galaxy S4 either but, we’d hardly be surprised if Apple threw that in relatively soon after this. The five patents that Apple are alleging the Galaxy S4 infringes upon are the following (with a short description):
- U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604 and U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 on a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system”.
- U.S. Patent No. 5,666,502 on a “graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes”
- U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 on a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data”
- U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414 on “asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices”
When it comes to Google Now, you might remember that Apple was granted a prelimnary injunction on the Galaxy Nexus, this was due to the Android Quick Search Box. Apple asserted patent numbers ‘604 and ‘959 against the device, claiming that unified search was pretty much an Apple feature and that through those two patents, unified search remains an Apple-only feature. Since then, Google Now has risen to become one of the most popular features of Android and so, of course, Apple want to update their court filings to target this as well.
All-in-all, this continues the trend that Apple started when they first targeted Samsung; they can’t go after Google so they go after the devices, and the OEMs. Some of them, like HTC have decided to cave in and sign up with Apple, to avoid further litigation. What do you guys think, has this gotten old yet? Are Apple looking desperate just yet?
[Source: FOSS Patents]