Wholesale News & Articles

  Escalating the global fight between Samsung and Apple, the former filed a patent lawsuit against the latter over the iPhone 5, requesting that the device be added to an existing lawsuit underway in U.S. Federal Court. The October 1 filing says that as soon as the iPhone 5 was available for purchase, Samsung began its investigation of the product and within a week determined that the iPhone 5 practiced its patented technologies. The iPhone 5 infringes two standards patents and six features patents, Samsung said.

  In a separate patent case, Apple won a $1.05 billion jury verdict against Samsung on Aug. 24. Now, Samsung is seeking to have this verdict overturned because the jury foreman did not disclose that he once was in litigation with Seagate Technology PLC, a company that counts Samsung as a major investor. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh, who is presiding over the litigation in California, scheduled December hearings to consider Apple's request for a permanent U.S. sales ban on eight Samsung smartphone models and the Tab 10.1. She also will consider Samsung's bid to get the August verdict thrown out based on claims of juror misconduct. Koh rescinded a ban on U.S. sales of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 that she imposed in June, saying there were no grounds for keeping the preliminary injunction in place.

  Meanwhile, Samsung is holding its position as the country's most popular handset maker, covering both smartphones and feature devices, according to research firm comScore's latest U.S. mobile market rankings for the three-month period ending August 2012. Its share remained flat, however, at 25.7 percent of all users. Apple grew 2.1 percent to take a 17.1 percent share of all mobile users, while Google's Android OS solidified its position as the most dominant smartphone platform, now being used on nearly 53 percent of all smartphones.

  In a separate report, Samsung joined Apple on Interbrand's 13th annual Best Global Brands list, appearing in the Top 10 for the first time. The Korean company's brand is now considered to be the ninth most valuable in the world, and said to be worth $32.8 billion. Coca-Cola retained the number-one position, Apple jumped from number eight to number two, IBM dropped from second to third and Google retained the number-four spot, followed by Microsoft, GE, McDonald's and Intel.