In a second California litigation against Samsung Electronics, Apple filed another motion on Tuesday, May 5, "to supplement the record regarding Samsung's Galaxy S III product." Apple filed the motion in the District Court for the Northern District of California, asking the court for permission to extend its motion for a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus to target the Galaxy S III as well. The Cupertino, California-based tech giant seeks to ban sales of Samsung's flagship smartphone in the U.S., claiming Samsung infringed on Apple's user interface patents.
Apple's latest move comes just weeks after both companies' chief executives met in the U.S. in a court-ordered session in an attempt to settle the patent dispute Apple initiated last year. So far, Apple and Samsung have been engaged in roughly 30 patent litigation suits in 10 different countries.
Apple purchased the Galaxy S III smartphone in the UK, where it launched on May 29. Samsung is set to launch its flagship phone in the U.S. on June 21, two weeks after the preliminary injunction hearing. "[A]ccording to press reports, Samsung has already sold over nine million preorders of the Galaxy S III; indeed, the Galaxy S III has been reported to be the most extensively preordered piece of consumer electronics in history," notes Apple's motion.
S III's Potential Infringement
The preliminary injunction motion Apple filed back in February targets Samsung's Galaxy Nexus over four patents. Apple, however, is still assessing the Galaxy S III's potential infringement of two of the four patents - the slide-to-unlock patent and the autocomplete patent. In an effort to facilitate the court's analysis and accelerate the process, Apple "will limit its current request for preliminary relief against the Galaxy S III to the '604 [unified search, referring to Siri] and '647 [data tapping] patents, because it is clear that infringement can be shown with respect to these patents based on the current record," Foss Patents reported.
"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," Samsung said in a statement, as cited by the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. Release Date Unaffected
According to the exhibits, Apple's counsel (Gibson Dunn & Crutcher) contacted Samsung's counsel (Quinn Emanuel) on Thursday, May 31, to discuss Apple's plan to include the Galaxy S III among the targeted products. Apple also asked Samsung to "confirm that it will not launch the Galaxy S III in the United States until the Court has ruled on Apple's preliminary injunction motion." On Monday, June 4, Samsung's counsel said that "Apple's pending Preliminary Injunction Motion will have no bearing on the release date of the Galaxy S III."
In regards to Apple's new motion, Samsung argued on Wednesday, June 6, that it is too late to supplement the record for the motion targeting the Nexus back in February. "If Apple wishes to seek an injunction against the Galaxy S III, the Court should require Apple to file a new motion and allow the parties to develop a full factual record on all four factors," said Samsung, according to Foss Patents. "Accordingly, the Court should reject Apple's motion to amend its current notice of motion for a preliminary injunction."
Earlier this month, Samsung announced that its new Galaxy S III flagship smartphone will be available in the United States starting this month from five carriers: AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon Wireless, and U.S. Cellular. Samsung already launched the S III in 28 countries in Europe and the Middle East, starting with the UK in May.
