Samsung Electronics announced on Tuesday that it has filed a new lawsuit against Apple (AAPL), citing infringement on its patents by the newly released iPhone 5.
Court documents reveal that the South Korean-based firm has added the next-gen device to an existing patent- infringement lawsuit against Apple in San Jose, California, and follows a $1.05 billion judgment against Samsung on Aug. 24 in a separate patent case in the same court.
“We have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights,” the world’s largest mobile-phone seller said in a statement.
Samsung’s latest move comes as a US court dissolved a preliminary injunction banning sales of Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet, allowing the company to sell the product in the United States.
While the Galaxy 10.1-tab, which was just one of several Samsung devices charged with violating Apple’s patents has been replaced several times over by newer models, the lifting of the ban could still help Samsung’s bottom line in the run-up to the crucial holiday shopping season.
Samsung said it was pleased with the court’s decision, which vindicated the firm’s position that “there was no infringement of Apple’s design patent and that an injunction was not called for.”
The world’s biggest makers of high-end phones are locked in patent disputes in 10 countries as they fight to retain their dominance in the $219 billion global smartphone market.
The case in which Samsung added the iPhone 5 claims is scheduled for trial in 2014.
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