The never-ending patent battles between Apple and Samsung have received another layer. Both companies were requesting to add new products to the existing lawsuit, and the judge was decided rather he should allow this. His thought was that, should he not allow it, both companies would just launch into a bunch more suits, which would be worse. With that in mind, Judge Grewal has decided to allow both companies to add additional products to the existing suit.
Apple will be adding Samsung Galaxy Note, the Jelly Bean operating system, and the U.S.-version Galaxy S III smartphone to the suit. Samsung, on the other hand, will be adding iPhone 5 in its complaint against Apple. The addition of Android Jelly Bean is only in relation to the Galaxy Nexus device. If the rest of this patent battle is any indication, there will probably be more products added before the suit finally goes to trial.
These patent battles have been going back and forth for quite a while. Each company has won some disputes and lost some. The present suit is scheduled to go to trail in 2014. In all, this lawsuit includes 19 Samsung devices, as well as Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch.
Of course, we all know about the major $1-billion victory Apple has over Samsung, which Samsung is still trying to get overturned. There is also the odd, and rather funny, case where Apple was forced to issue an apology to Samsung on its website. Hopefully, this massive suit in 2014 will be the big one that puts an end to the constant back and forth between the two companies. Only time will tell, of course.
[via SlashGear]
I know this is never going to end but how can Apple sue Samsung over Jelly Bean OS? Wouldn’t that have to be a suit against Google?