Apple claims Galaxy Note, new Android infringe patent

Apple Inc. told a judge that Samsung Electronics Co.’s Galaxy Note 10.1 device infringes its patents, and sought to add the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system to an existing lawsuit against Samsung in California.

Apple made the arguments Wednesday to U.S. Magistrate Judge Paul S. Grewal in federal court in San Jose. Apple’s bid to expand the lawsuit follows Samsung’s Oct. 1 move to add patent- infringement claims against the iPhone 5 in the same case. Apple won a $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung on Aug. 24 in a separate patent case in the same court.

Filings by both companies in their two cases before U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh show no letup in their battle on four continents to retain dominance in the $219 billion global smartphone market.

Samsung in August began U.S. sales of the Galaxy Note 10.1, equipped with a stylus ― a feature Apple’s iPad doesn’t offer, and which builds on Samsung’s Galaxy Note 5.3, a similarly stylus-equipped smartphone that came out earlier this year. Jelly Bean is Google Inc.’s latest version of the Android operating system that runs on Samsung mobile devices as well as Google’s Nexus 7 handheld computer, which was released in June.

Koh on Oct. 1 rescinded a ban on U.S. sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 that she imposed in June, deciding there were no grounds for keeping the preliminary injunction in place after jurors concluded in their Aug. 24 verdict that Samsung didn’t infringe the Apple design patent that was the basis for the injunction.

Apple, based in Cupertino, California, contended the ban should remain in place because the jury found the Galaxy Tab infringed other patents at issue in the case.

Andrew Liao, an Apple attorney, told Grewal Wednesday that the Galaxy Nexus is the only phone with Jelly Bean that Apple seeks to add to the patent complaint. Liao also said Apple wants to add 17 devices that could use a stylus even though the products don’t ship with a stylus. 

(Bloomberg)