Apple has been mum about any new product developments over the last few months, but the company is certainly not rolling over to the likes of Samsung in its ongoing patent infringement battle. Interestingly, Apple is now claiming that Samsung is violating Siri patents, via an amendment in its current court case. Apple is claiming that Samsung is infringing on patents 8,086,604 and 6,846,959, which detail a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system,” a.k.a. Siri, by using Google’s Google Now technology in their devices. Apple is also claiming that the Samsung Galaxy S4 is infringing on five more patents, which follow below:
- U.S. Patent No. 8,086,604 and U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 on a “universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system”
- Apple asserted the ‘604 patent in a preliminary injunction motion. The Federal Circuit reversed a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Nexus and, in addition to equitable reasons, overturned Judge Koh’s claim construction in a way that affects both “Siri” patents alike (for an excellent explanation of this claim construction issue, see Patently-O’s post). Apple claims that the ‘604 and ‘959 patents are infringed even under the appeals court’s construction.
- U.S. Patent No. 5,666,502 on a “graphical user interface using historical lists with field classes”
- U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 on a “system and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data” (which I dubbed the “data tapping” patent, a term many reporters have since adopted)
- Apple prevailed over HTC on this patent at the ITC. Apple claims that Android infringes this patent at the operating system level (the “linkify” library), as you can see in this infringement claim chart from the HTC case. Apple was enforcing an ITC import ban against HTC but ceased enforcement after a settlement (the parties stipulated to rescission of the exclusion order).
- U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414 on “asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices”
Interestingly enough, Apple has not yet mentioned the recently announced Samsung Galaxy S4 Google Edition in its claims, and it would not be surprising if they did in the future. How the battle turns out is now in the hands of the courts.
[Via: Droid Life , FOSS Patents] [Image: Techno Buffalo]
