If anything the patent battle is getting more intense by day and is transforming into some kind of World War of the tech world as Apple files fresh lawsuits against Samsung. And this time it’s not for the design, but the software used on the Galaxy Nexus which is stock Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS).
If Apple is able to win this litigation it would be a huge win for them as it would essentially mean that the ruling would apply to not only the Samsung Galaxy Nexus but also to devices by other android manufacturers using ICS on it.
The lawsuit in question was filed by Apple at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Thursday and involves four major Apple patents. These four patents roughly cover voice recognition (Siri) and search, dialing a number etc. from the web page using touch, word placement and to unlock a smartphone via sliding of an image.
Here are the fours patents in question in detail.
- US Patent No. 8086604: Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system
As per this patent, the user can use multiple methods of input like voice and text thorough a single interface which searches the query in different locations including phone and the web.
- US Patent No. 5946647 – System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data.
Here, the device can detect a phone number, date or address in the web browser and upon touching them launch the appropriate app to save etc. Apple has already won a ruling in their favor relating to this patent against HTC Android devices resulting in either a ban on importation or sale of the device.
- US Patent No. 8074172 – Method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendations.
Apple has already won a ruling in their favor relating to this patent against HTC Android devices resulting in either a ban on importation or sale of the device.
- US Patent No. 8046721 – Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image.
This one as you can easily guess refers to the ‘slide to unlock’ bar feature.
Apple is pressing for an immediate injunction on the sales of the Galaxy Nexus stating that the sales of the device during the period of the litigation will not only result in the loss of customers for the iPhone but also its other devices including iMacs, Macbooks and Apple TVs and will directly hamper their revenue through iTunes store in the form of app sales and other digital content.
They also stated that Samsung is persisting in ripping off of features from the iOS because they believe that they will be able to get away with it or at least be able to lure first time customers to Samsung until any kind of action is taken against them, thus serving the purpose for the Korea based firm.
These are no doubt, very strong accusations by Apple and Samsung is yet to give any official comments on the matter. The big question though is; Will Google step in on this case and will they finally make use of the patent portfolio acquired by Motorola, given that Motorola already have some patent lawsuits against Apple?
