Galaxies still colliding as Samsung adds iPhone 5 to infringement suit, gets Tab ban lifted

They said they were going to do it. Now they’ve done it.

Samsung lawyers have added the iPhone 5 to the company’s patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, two weeks after threatening to do so. That lawsuit, one of many ongoing between the two mobile giants, concerns eight patents on data transfer, media syncing, touch screen technology, and more that Samsung says Apple violates.

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The pre-emptive announcement had seemed suspiciously timed to interrupt the news cycle ramping up to the iPhone 5 launch, which broke records by pre-selling two million units in the first day.

Adding the iPhone 5 to the infringement lawsuit was completely expected — the iPhone 5, after all, shares much with the iPhone 4 in terms of operating system and user interface — but hugely significant. Initial estimates peg potential iPhone 5 sales at 50 million for the U.S. alone in just the first three months of its release.

That’s a lot of units, a lot of dollars, and a lot of infringement — if the courts agree.

In other news from yet another related Samsung v. Apple case, the temporary Galaxy Tab 10.1 ban has been lifted. According to FOSS Patents, that’s simply due to the fact that in the landmark billion-dollar Apple win in August, the jury did not find any infringement in the Tab.

That was, of course, the famous D899 “rounded corners” patent.

The courtroom soap opera continues …

photo credit: NASA Goddard Photo and Video via photopin cc