Update 4:01 p.m. ET, Tuesday Sept. 13
After suffering several unfavorable rulings in Europe, Samsung has struck back in its transnational patent fight with Apple, filing three mobile device patent infringement claims in France, the company said on Monday.
The French news agency AFP cites an inside source who claims that Samsung’s complaint is centered on three patents related to Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a type of 3G technology (supporting both voice and data transmission) that is found on Samsung devices and on popular Apple products including the iPhone and the iPad.
The complaint, which was filed in July, marks a new battle line between the two companies who have been locked in an ongoing legal feud over their respective intellectual property rights. Apple has filed several design-based patent infringement claims against Samsung in other European countries, including Germany and the Netherlands, and has mostly prevailed in those cases. The July filing by Samsung pivots away from the dispute over design to the underlying technology the devices use.
In the German case on August 9, Apple won (and the court recently upheld) a preliminary injunction against Samsung that prevents the device-maker from selling its Galaxy Tab tablet throughout Germany, Europe’s largest economy, while the court deliberates on a final verdict.
In the Netherlands, Samsung suffered an arguably even more important blow in a design patent infringement case there, with a judge ruling August 24 to ban the Galaxy smartphone line of products from sale throughout the European Union (although of the 30 countries where Apple had filed patents, only 14 were still active).
Samsung has appealed in the former case and plans to appeal in the latter. Yet, seemingly undaunted by another pending lawsuit from Apple, the South Korean company is also selling the Galaxy Tab tablet in the Netherlands right now.
In total, Samsung and Apple are locked in 19 patent lawsuits across 4 continents, patents blogger Florian Mueller notes.
We’ve reached out to both Samsung and Apple for comment and will update when we receive a response.
Late update: Samsung has responded with the following brief statement: “Samsung will continue to actively defend and protect our intellectual property, and to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communication business.”
