Apple sues to block sales of Samsung Galaxy Nexus in patent fight
Apple has its sights set on a new target in its ongoing patent battle with rival tech giant Samsung -- the Galaxy Nexus.
In a lawsuit filed Feb. 8 in U.S. District Court in San Jose (and sealed by the court until Friday), Apple requested a temporary sales ban on the Galaxy Nexus over its alleged violation of four patents.
Apple says Samsung infringed patents pertaining to a slide-to-unlock feature, searching across multiple sources to find information (a feature Siri relies on in the iPhone 4S), identifying phone numbers in an email so that a user can call that number by tapping on it and a spell check that offers suggested corrections, according to a MarketWatch report.
The Galaxy Nexus, which runs on the latest version of Google’s Android operating system called Ice Cream Sandwich, features a search by voice and other features that Apple says are illegally encroaching on what is found on its iPhone.
Google’s Android smartphones and Apple’s iPhone are each other’s biggest rivals. Samsung, meanwhile, is the largest producer of Android handsets.
Samsung and Apple officials were unavailable for comment on the lawsuit Monday, but a Samsung official told MarketWatch that the company will “assert our intellectual property rights and defend against Apple’s claims to ensure our continued innovation and growth in the mobile communications business.”
Apple and Samsung are in a patent battle that spans several countries in Europe and Asia, as well as Australia. More than 20 suits have been filed in at least 10 countries, according to a Reuters report.
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