Samsung Retaliates, Officially Adds IPhone 5 To Its List Of Patent-Infringing Devices

Even before the iPhone 5 was announced, Samsung was confident that part of its design and feature list would infringe on at least one of its patents. In fact, the Korean tech firm stated that if it featured LTE (which it does) there was no way Apple could have avoided infringement.

Today, it’s been announced by the company that it has indeed added the 6th generation Apple smartphone to its list of grudges against our favorite fruit company.

In a statement, Samsung said: “…we have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.”

There’s very little detail available on this. But, in usual cases, Apple only ever “infringes” if the patent is absolutely necessary to achieve a task such as connecting to a 4G network. These are known as Standards Essential and normally require a licensing agreement.

They are not the same as trade dress, and design patents which Samsung was found guilty of copying with its older Galaxy lineup. We’ll let you know how this develops, but, I doubt Apple will be found guilty. Samsung’s just having a tantrum because they don’t like having to pay $1 billion to their main competitor.

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