When the case between Apple and Samsung in the US concluded, we somehow knew that even then, legal battles would rage on. Samsung is already intending to take the US case to the court of appeals where, it's expected a new focus will be placed on the validity of Apple's patents themselves, as opposed to asking, did Samsung copy or not?
It was revealed by Google, in an announcement, where it felt like the firm was reaching a boiling point, that the United States Patent Office was also reviewing Apple patents, perhaps after much criticism over the simplicity of some of the patents covering basic data manipulation; a little pre-filtering would certainly help to speed along future cases. During the Apple v Samsung case, Google took the opportunity to file its own suit covering seven patents, some of which would have a serious impact on 'Siri', one of the biggest drivers behind the firm's modern smartphones. This appears to have prompted some response from Apple as CEO, Tim Cook, quickly picked-up the phone with Google's Larry Page to hold secret discussions.
In Europe and Australia, Apple has yet to win a significant case with relation to patent and design infringement, with most initially successful bans overturned during appeal and, with Motorola maintaining a permanent ban on iCloud push services within Germany, effective enough, it seems, that Apple has just struck a licensing deal with the firm in the region for some of its fair-use patents. In the UK, in a case against HTC, whilst it was deemed the now famous 'bounce-back' patent wasn't relevant, the Judge did rule that 'slide-to-unlock', amongst other big patents were invalid - likewise - it was found that Samsung's GALAXY Tab didn't infringe upon the iPad, seeing Apple ordered to advertise that Samsung did not copy Apple.
Most recently, Japanese courts also announced that Apple patents covering data transfer between devices were out-of-scope, when held against Samsung's GALAXY smartphone range, ordering Apple to pay all legal fees. Japan is one to keep a close eye on, as another case brewing on the horizon also relates to the bounce-back patent.
Shockingly, it really is still early days in these patent wars.
