Samsung suing Apple over emoticons

December 19, 2011 By Molly McHugh

The Samsung vs. Apple lawsuits are covering new territory: new claims include taking the iPhone manufacturer to court over smiley faces.

Samsung and Apple have been globally making the rounds with various lawsuits and injunctions against specific products. The two manufacturers’ various patent disputes have run the gamete, ranging from infringements over marketing materials to product sizes. But now we may have reached the final frontier of these legal entanglements: Samsung claims that Apple has violated some up-until-now unmentioned patents regarding emoticons. The manufacturer is lobbying four new lawsuits against Apple that relate to the WCDMA standard for 3G, one of which includes Samsung taking Apple to court over emoticon display.

The suit was filed in Germany, and according to Reuters, these new claims will be separate from litigation from last April.

Apparently Samsung will challenge the way in which iPhones enter emoticons on the handset’s screen. The two tech giants have been involved in an escalating war, which Samsung was at the mercy of when its Galaxy Tab tablet sales were blocked in Australia. The injunction has since been lifted, and Samsung’s attempts to block the iPhone 4S have been unsuccessful.

This new suit, while ridiculous-sounding on the surface, will probably just act as fuel for Apple to follow up with its own new patent claims. It’s starting to feel like these companies are grasping at straws, looking for untouched territory they can leverage as patented. What Apple will retaliate with we can’t say, but at the moment it would appear Samsung has been taking a legal bruising. It could use a win in this series of court appearances.

Showing 13 comments

Lindsworth Horatio Deer at 5:30pm 20th December 2011 a sign of just too much money going to waste in litigious pursuits. Guess this is what lawyers do when they can't get cases
Nancy Wyse at 10:46pm 19th December 2011 What? Do they have a yearly law suit quota to meet or something?
heronstone at 12:54pm 19th December 2011 run the "GAMETE"... duh!
Christian Mukaz at 8:33pm 19th December 2011 they really have nothing better to do. all this non sense... well it's understandable, victims of capitalism. what a system, is not really serving humanity well, meaningless competitions. instead of fight they could join forces a create a better technology that really last longer not the ones that you always have to spend money every 6 months because there is a new one that came out a better version, just to make us buy and buy none stop. people got to wake up. tire of this...... peace
Michael Bobek at 8:19pm 19th December 2011 Are you friggin' KIDDING me> suing over emoticons???? And of course the consumers are the ones really paying for the costs of these frivolous suits :-( (waiting for Samsung lawyers to sue me since this was entered on a Mac, lol)
Wade Wan at 8:16pm 19th December 2011 I just love the drama between Apple and Samsung
Dave Moehle at 8:00pm 19th December 2011 You go Samsung! Turn about is fare play!
Somphou Keomisy at 7:54pm 19th December 2011 Dumb and dumber... Now which is which?.. Lol
shadow53 at 10:12am 19th December 2011 I don't dare smile or Use any other facial expression
1. Ian Bell at 10:38am 19th December 2011 LOL love it. Pretty ridiculous lawsuit.
  1. jesterking at 10:49am 19th December 2011 :|
jesterking at 9:18am 19th December 2011 wow... This is getting to be a spiteful pissing match. :) are they going to sue me now? As much as I hate apple, this is just getting ridiculous.
1. Ian Bell at 10:38am 19th December 2011 They likely know its a dumb suit, and they are just having fun with Samsung. I'd like to think that anyways!