Samsung to bring iPhone 5 to U.S. court

Samsung Electronics plans to add Apple Inc.’s latest smartphone iPhone 5 to the list of devices targeted in its patent lawsuits with the U.S. tech giant.

Samsung officials in Seoul said on Thursday that the company had submitted a document to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, which states its plan to include iPhone 5 in the ongoing suit against Apple.

In the motion, Samsung said that based on currently available information, it believes the new smartphone will infringe the asserted Samsung patents-in-suit in the same way the other involved iPhone models did. Apple is to release the iPhone 5 in the United States on Friday.

“Samsung plans to file a motion to amend its infringement contentions to address the iPhone 5 as soon as it has had a reasonable opportunity to analyze the device,” said the South Korean firm in the document.

The ongoing suit was filed in April by Samsung against Apple’s iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, new iPad and iPad 2. Samsung argues that those products and related services infringed eight of its patents.

“Although we prefer market competition through innovation rather than lawsuits, we decided that at least the minimum reaction is needed in order to protect our intellectual property rights and continue making innovations in a situation where Apple continues to restrict market competition by filing suits,” said Samsung’s spokesperson.

The two tech giants have been at odds in dozens of patent lawsuits in 10 nations, accusing each other of copying technologies and designs.

The U.S. court ruled in favor of Apple on Aug. 24, calling for Samsung to pay damages.

Early in September, Apple added Galaxy S3 to the list in a fresh complaint, further intensifying pressure on Samsung.

By Park Min-young (claire@heraldcorp.com)