Apple seeks ban on US sales of 22 new Samsung Elec. products

Apple is seeking to ban U.S. sales of the latest Samsung Electronics` gadgets, including the smartphones Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note, in the wake of the American company`s high-profile legal victory over the Korean company over patent infringement.

The Korean electronics industry and foreign media reports on Sunday said Apple has submitted a revised filing with a U.S. federal court claiming that 22 new Samsung products, including its latest smartphones and tablet computers, infringed on Apple`s patents in technology and user interface. The latest action is separate from the recent lawsuit on design patents. Apple revised its lawsuit against 18 Samsung products filed in February, adding four of the Korean company’s latest products.

The Korean electronics sector expects Apple to also file an injunction against the U.S. sale of the four latest Samsung products. Since the four are Samsung’s flagship models that were released to market two or three months ago, a sales ban in the U.S. market would deal a severe blow to Samsung’s performance in the U.S., the world’s largest market.

Apple claims that Samsung infringed on its patents on allowing users to touch a telephone number or email address to make a call or send email, proposing complete words when users type in a few characters, managing missed calls, suggesting recently typed or used words, using the slide-to-unlock function, synchronizing unsynchronized data between devices, and enabling an integrated information search function on a computer system.

Among the complaints, Apple’s patent on the integrated information search function was acknowledged by a U.S. court, which issued a preliminary ruling banning the sale of Samsung products violating that patent. So Samsung will likely be found to have infringed on the patent.

In addition, the U.S. International Trade Commission also issued a preliminary ruling that Taiwanese mobile phone maker HTC, which also uses the Android operating system as Samsung does, violated the patent in the phone and email function.

The Korean electronics industry projects that the technologies on Apple’s infringement list are used by most smartphone makers using Android.

U.S. media including the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News showed a cautious attitude, however, saying it is difficult at this juncture to predict how the added infringement claims will affect Samsung since a ruling is not expected until at least July next year.

After Apple`s patent victory over Samsung, the Northern California court rejected the U.S. company`s request to ban the sale of the Galaxy S3. A final ruling could be different, however, experts say.

In an official comment, Samsung expressed regret over Apple "trying to block innovation by letting lawsuits lead market competition" and that it will “take counteractions so that consumers aren`t hindered from choosing our products."

nex@donga.com witness@donga.com