Apple files another Samsung lawsuit in Germany

AGGRESSIVE LITIGATOR Apple has started the new year with another legal assault on Samsung in Germany.

The fruit themed firm has filed two lawsuits, one that alleges design patent infringements in ten of Samsung's smartphones and another that levels similar charges for five of its tablets. Apple has asked for a ban on sales.

You know by now that the two parties do not get on, and while Samsung might tease Apple, the cappuccino company always seems to hit harder.

We have asked both Apple and Samsung to tell us what is going on here, but in the meantime Bloomberg has it that Apple has filed two lawsuits, one that targets the ten smartphones, and one that goes after tablets. Bloomberg quotes a court official as its source.

So far so bad for Samsung in Germany. So far it has had to pull hardware out of a trade show and had to modify its 10in Galaxy Tab tablet to get around a ban.

"It's no coincidence that Samsung's latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging," is the official Apple line, which concludes, "This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple's intellectual property when companies steal our ideas."

Incidentally, the joke last week was that Samsung had started throwing eggs at its own stores. Samsung is throwing lawsuits of its own at Apple, of course, and as recently as December was adding to its court diary. µ