Apple can’t say it wasn’t warned.
Back in August, Samsung declared a clear admonishment to Apple: that is the company’s upcoming iPhone 5 (available for purchase tomorrow, September 21) featured LTE, Samsung would sue Apple. That was no bluff.
Papers have already been filed in regards to the lawsuit. Samsung has indeed added the iPhone 5 to the litany of patent lawsuits already thrown at Apple. According to Reuters, a representative at Samsung made the following statement in regards to the latest episode in a patent battle that has been going on for years now:
Reported the Samsung:
“We have always preferred to compete in the marketplace with our innovative products, rather than in courtrooms. However, Apple continues to take aggressive legal measures that will limit market competition. Under these circumstances, we have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights.”
As written on the actual documents filed:
Samsung anticipates that it will file, in the near future, a motion to amend its infringement contentions to add the iPhone 5 as an accused product. Based on information currently available, Samsung expects that the iPhone 5 will infringe the asserted Samsung patents-in-suit in the same way as the other accused iPhone models.
Will Samsung file an injunction for sales of the new iPhone in order to counter similar injunctions made by Apple for Samsung products? That remains to be seen since Samsung has not commented on that possibility. Not long ago, Apple went to every length to try and block sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 due to the alleged patent infringements on the iPad – but only time will tell whether Samsung chooses to counteract with the same behavior.