Is Apple Slowly Becoming a Patent Troll?

Apple is not giving Samsung any break as Steve Jobs Co. accuses the latter of more patent infringements and adding more Samsung devices that Apple claims as copycats. As of today, the list now includes 12 different Samsung devices that allegedly infringe upon Apple's five design patents.

Apple's updated suit now includes the Droid Charge, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S, Gravity Smart, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Sidekick 4G, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and the Galaxy S II.

“The suit may be a bit of a stretch,” says CrunchGear. “There are similarities, yes, but nothing to the point where I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between an iPhone 4 and an Infuse 4G.”

Some claims of design infringements are out of this world, even, like the inclusion of the Sidekick, Replenish, and Gravity Smart. All of them have physical QWERTY keyboards, something obviously absent on any Apple device and we doubt it would appear on any future iDevice.

Apart from the two new design patents into the suit, Apple has also filed a complaint against Samsung for infringing up to eight utility patents.

Samsung has yet to submit their devices for Apple's inspection, while we are also waiting for the judge's decision on whether Apple would have to do the same and hand over the iPad 3 and iPhone 5 to Samsung.
source: Gadget.com

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