Samsung suing Apple over emoticons

By Molly McHugh December 19, 2011

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.

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Before coming to Digital Trends, Molly worked as a freelance writer, occasional photographer, and general technical lackey…

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