Apple targets Samsung Galaxy S III in amended patent complaint

Apple has added products including versions of the Samsung Galaxy S III in an amended patent infringement complaint before a federal court in California in a separate patent case against Samsung.

A jury in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose division last month awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages after finding that Samsung had infringed some of its patents. Apple subsequently asked for a permanent injunction against eight Samsung phones, which will be heard by the court in December.

Apple approached the court on August 31 to add the Galaxy S III and other products in an amended complaint before the court in the other case. Judge Lucy H Koh had issued a preliminary injunction on sales of the Galaxy Nexus in the US in July, but the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit stayed temporarily the operation of the order.

Although its complaint had asserted a total of eight patents and identified seventeen accused products, Apple moved for a preliminary injunction only against the Galaxy Nexus smartphone, and on the basis of four patents, including patent no. 8,086,604 relating to an universal interface for the retrieval of information in a computer system, patent no. 8,046,721 relating to the slide to unlock, patent no. 8,074,172 on word recommendations and auto correct, and patent no. 5,946,647 relating to a system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data.

In June, after Samsung announced that it would launch the Galaxy S III in the US later in the month, Apple tried to broaden the scope of its request for preliminary injunction to include the smartphone, some days before the hearing on the injunction, but it was denied by the court after Samsung said the addition would require further time on discovery and briefings.

"An order on the pending motion for preliminary injunction will issue shortly. If Apple seeks to file a motion to enjoin sales of the Samsung Galaxy S III, Apple will have to request a new hearing date from the Court," Judge Koh ruled on June 11.

In the amended complaint, Apple said that Samsung's infringing products now include at least 21 new smartphones, media players, and tablets that Samsung has released beginning in August 2011 and continuing through August 2012.

Apple said in its complaint that the products infringed eight of its utility patents, including four that were awarded to the company after the other lawsuit against Samsung, and none of which is at issue in the other case.