Apple scaled up its legal attacks late this week with lawsuits againstSamsung both in the US and in Germany. The American complaint, details of which were filed in a Northern District of California court in San Jose on Wednesday and published on Friday, accuses Samsung of violating two patents that it had only just obtained in December. Samsung was accused of copying iOS’ techniques for heuristic information finding as well as its method of suggesting a replacement word when a misspelling is highlighted.
The core complaint is currently unpublished online and prevents checking full details of the lawsuit. Apple filed several briefs to accompany it, however, including positions from multiple experts that would presumably illustrate how Samsung allegedly copied the iOS implementation.
Its complaint is a shift in strategy for the US, where Apple has been focusing more on design similarities than software.
Simultaneously, Florian Mueller noticed that Apple had also sued Samsung again in Germany. The Mannheim lawsuit appeared to be an effective transfer of a Munich lawsuit whose attempted preliminary ban over iOS’ slide-to-unlock patent had been denied a week earlier. The Munich case had been voluntarily ended without prejudice, letting Apple refile again.
Apple’s decision may have been prompted by a belief that the Munich court might invalidate the patent. In making progress in Mannheim with an existing case, Apple may be convinced that the slide-to-unlock lawsuit may have more success in the other German city. Its complaint was hoping to quash the Galaxy Nexus.
