Apple I- Phone

Apple asks for US preliminary injunction of Samsung's Android 4.0 Galaxy Nexus

By Daniel Eran Dilger

Published: 05:54 PM EST (02:54 PM PST)

Apple is leveraging four recently granted patents to seek a preliminary injunction against sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus smartphone, Google's Android 4.0 flagship device, as part of a new federal lawsuit that also involves other patent claims.

General details of the new suit were published yesterday, but according to a report by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, Apple's latest suit targets the Galaxy Nexus, parallel to a separate complaint last fall, but differing in several key respects.

Case two: All guns blazing

Mueller notes that in this new case, Apple has filed for a preliminary injunction at the same time as its ongoing suit alleging patent infringement. In the prior case, Apple filed the case first and then added a request for a preliminary injunction. As a result, Samsung argued that Apple's filings indicated a lack of urgency or necessity in getting an injunction in place.

Apple is also outlining the actual costs and damages it suffers through the availability of Samsung's infringing products.

The complaint is also based on patents that were recently issued, so as Mueller notes, "there's no more argument over Apple having tolerated infringement for a long time before bringing a complaint." Apple also portrays Samsung as "as an unrepentant, 'recidivist' infringer whom the courts must finally stop," Mueller points out.

The patents in question also related to specific, technical features rather than "software design related rights."

The four patents

The four patents Apple is asserting against the Galaxy Nexus include the Data Detectors patent Apple successfully used to win an ITC injunction against HTC: U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 "System and Method for Performing an Action on a Structure in Computer-Generated Data."

Google's decision to keep Data Detectors in Android 4.0 even after the ITC ruled it as infringement in the HTC case, Muller wrote, "is unfair vis-?-vis HTC (whose products are weaker because they have to respect the decision), snubs Apple, and shows disregard for intellectual property in general and the ITC in particular. This is a case of willful, extremely reckless infringement."

Secondly, U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604 "Universal Interface for Retrieval of Information in a Computer System" is a "new patent related to Siri and unified search," which Mueller notes, "must be of huge concern to Google with a view to its core business."

The third, U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721 "Unlocking a Device by Performing Gestures on an Unlock Image" is the slide to unlock patent that Apple has previous asserted in other cases, including a German suit against the Galaxy Nexus. The government in Taiwan expressed concern about the patent after it was granted last fall.

The fourth, U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172 "Method, System, and Graphical User Interface for Providing Word Recommendations," Mueller described as "a word completion patent that provides major speed improvements for touchscreen text entry."

Shooting down Nexus

That Apple is taking direct aim at the Galaxy Nexus is interesting in that the model represents the latest version of Android 4.0 software, as well as being the latest official Google-led design using a stock install of Android, as opposed to devices marketed by Motorola, Samsung or HTC with layers of vendor-specific, differentiating software on them.

This takes Apple's infringement case directly to Google's Android, while focusing the damages upon the most successful Android licensee with the deepest pockets: Samsung.

The rollout of Android 4.0 is occurring very slowly, making the Galaxy Nexus the primary vehicle for Google's latest version of its mobile operating system. The 4.0 release aims at bringing a variety of enhancements and technologies originally created to enable Android to power tablets systems in last year's Android 3.0 Honeycomb release. It's also required to install Google's latest Chrome browser.

While Android 4.0 currently only represents 1 percent of the installed base of Android devices, the Galaxy Nexus also represents the more profitable higher end of the Android product range, making it more effective for Apple to target than the large volume of virtually profitless basic feature phones that also use Android.

Disrupting its feature set and forcing the removal infringing features from Android 4.0 will likely blunt the deployment of other Android licensee's high end products, making it even more difficult to earn profits on the platform.

*Instant 3% AppleInsider Reader Discount Applied When Adding Items To Your Cart

Apple co-founder Steve Jobs did serve on White House council in '90s
Swiss company seeks iPhone, Apple TV ban over alleged patent infringement
Apple looks to end Motorola patent attack in Germany with U.S. suit
Apple now offers basic 13-in. $999 MacBook Air to education buyers
Apple lodges new suit against Samsung over autocorrect, screen unlock
Apple to disrupt notebook space with radically redesigned MacBook Pros
AT&T's 4G-compatible micro-SIM cards prompt speculation of LTE 'iPad 3'
2%-3% dividend suggested as best use of Apple's $100B in cash
German court dismisses Motorola's 3G-related suit against Apple
Motorola puts blame on Google for lag on Android updates
Apple again highlights Siri with new 'Road Trip,' 'Rock God' iPhone 4S ads
iTunes customers facing mysterious account hacks, disappearing gift card money
Apple said to be in 'crunch mode' to ready 'iPad 3' apps for on-stage demos, ads
Google reportedly working on wireless home entertainment system
Samsung Galaxy 10.1N cleared for sale in Germany
Inside Sandboxing: how Apple plans to make the Mac App Store as secure as iOS
AT&T throttling unlimited data users starting at 2 GB per month based on location
Apple employee says upcoming iPad 3 to have "truly amazing" screen
Workers' rights petitions delivered to Apple's Grand Central store
US NOAA ditches BlackBerry, chooses Apple's iPhone and iPad
FBI file on Steve Jobs reveals he was considered for White House position
Apple now worth more than Google and Microsoft combined [u]
Apple exploring 3D frame-of-reference iOS interface based on eye, light location
Apple said to hold 'iPad 3' event first week in March
Pictured Sharp LCD panel claimed to be Retina Display for Apple's 'iPad 3'
Leaked photo allegedly shows outside back cover of Apple's next iPad
Alleged Foxconn hack allowed bogus orders to be placed for vendors
White MacBook sales come to close as Apple ceases sales to education institutions
Google says it won't support fair licensing in open standards as Apple, Microsoft, Cisco have
Cisco backs Apple's ETSI request for fair and open licensing of standards patents
Doubts cast on likelihood of quad-core A6 CPU in third-gen iPad
Path apologizes, offers opt-out for address book uploading
iTunes Match generates 'magic money' for music copyright holders
Siri rumored to gain support for Mandarin, Japanese and Russian in March
US Air Force may buy 18,000 Apple iPads for cargo aircraft
Purported 'iPad 3' back panel shows space for larger battery, new LCD
Worker abuse petitions to be delivered Thursday at Apple's Grand Central store
Microsoft joins Apple in pledging support for injunction free, FRAND patent licensing
iPhone best at retaining resale value and offers lowest total cost of ownership
iTunes-sponsored live Paul McCartney concert to stream for free on Apple TV

View the original article here

Go ahead to and sign up Samsung.com(but keep coming back here to be briefed) , to keep yourself  informed about whenever the genuine and approved updates are accessible.  Complying with, and allowing you to pick either of these – Verizon, Cellular South (now C Spire), AT&T, Sprint, US Cellular, T-Mobile, and MetroPCS networks; we are still restricted from recognizing which of these carriers the gadget will be released to. Keep referring to our blog, and you will be ahead of all your tech savvy buddies to get the latest info on the Galaxy Nexus from Samsung, as we do our best to care for your needs.

Considering Google staff members and employees have been using the allotted version, Verizon is pretty sure to get the Galaxy Nexus (at the moment), although we still await valid acknowledgment for the possible choice of carriers. US Cellular and MetroPCS would delightfully carry the device; it would be gratifying to see the bargain that will be proclaimed.

Checkout the sing-up page here: Galaxy Nexus

View the original article here

For almost as long as we’ve used mobile phones, we’ve been able to send and receive text messages, and later audio and video, through the cell network. Yet, as data packages become increasingly more common for mobile devices, sending those messages over the Internet sounds more conceivable than ever before. Samsung is the new player in this space with its ChatON messaging service.

Other companies have developed this type of service in the past; typically, they all allow text, video and picture messaging between compatible devices. RIM offers BlackBerry Messenger and iOS 5 by Apple will include iMessage, both with similar feature sets but different interfaces. Yet, they don’t support any device made by others, making it impossible for Blackberry Messenger users to communicate with Android or iPhone users, for example.

Samsung’s ChatON, on the other hand, will work with every major smartphone platform available, including iOS, Android, Blackberry OS as well as Samsung’s very own homebrew OS known as Bada. Indeed, ChatON will allow users to message each other no matter which platform they’re running, just as long as they have the client installed.

As you can tell from the demo video above, Samsung is being rather serious about ChatON and has indeed packed it with features. The most basic feature is one-to-one text chat, which behaves similarly to other chat clients on both traditional and mobile platforms. Group conversations are also easy to set up, making it easy to chat with many at once, much like what’s possible with other chat clients as well.

More than just text, users will also be able to share multimedia through a feature known as Trunk. For each conversation there’s a Trunk, which organizes all the multimedia sent throughout said conversation. It will even be possible to add comments to existing media, making interaction that much simpler. In addition to Trunk, ChatON will allow simple video animations to be created right from the device using hand drawings, text, backgrounds, images as well as a background music which is also available at the user’s disposal. This feature, which has no comparable equivalent on other clients, is known as AMS, which stands for Animation Message Service.

ChatON will be available in September in as many as 120 countries, according to Samsung itself. While not particularly innovative, this tool might help needing users cut down their SMS fees, but keep in mind that data charges apply.

(via SammyHub)

You can follow us on Twitter or join our Facebook fanpage to keep yourself updated on all the latest from Microsoft, Google and Apple.

View the original article here