Apple filed a lawsuit this week seeking to halt the sale of Samsung’s new flagship smartphone in the United States, claiming that Samsung’s new phone violates Apple’s user interface patents.
The lawsuit is the latest salvo in an escalating patent war between the two tech firms, who are currently embroiled in approximately 30 intellectual property lawsuits in 10 different countries, according to the
Wall Street Journal.
Samsung, which is accused of cribbing interface and design ideas from Apple’s iPhone and repackaging them in their upcoming Galaxy S III smartphone,
emphatically denied any plagiarism of Apple’s patented designs, explaining in a statement, “Samsung believes Apple's request is without merit. We will vigorously oppose the request and demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive.”
Apple isn’t buying it. “It is no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and the iPad devices, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging,” argued Apple spokesman Steve Park. “This kind of blatant copying is wrong and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”
The competition between the two tech giants has reached a zenith in the wake of some analysts’ estimates that Samsung supplanted Apple in the first quarter of 2012 as the world’s most prolific smartphone vendor.
The Galaxy S III launched in Europe and the Middle East last month.
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