Apple seeks US ban on Samsung Galaxy S3

Samsung will fight Apple's attempt to ban the Galaxy S3 mobile phone from being sold in the US.

The Samsung Galaxy S3 was launched in Britain at the end of last month but Apple is seeking an injunction against its sale in the US. The iPhone-maker claims that the S3 breaches two of its patents and says the handset is "not more than colorably different from the Galaxy Nexus", which has been the target of past disputes.

Apple filed its motion earlier this week. Samsung said it believed Apple's request to be "without merit". The company said in a statement: "We will vigorously oppose the request and demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S3 is innovative and distinctive."

The patents in question relate to unified search and a system for recognising and performing actions on structured data. Apple says it is still trying to determine whether the S3 also breaches two other patents.

The Galaxy S3 is due to launch in the US on June 21. Samsung said: "We would like to assure customers that the US launch and sales of the Galaxy S3 will proceed as planned."

The dispute is the latest in a long round of lawsuits and counter-lawsuits between the two companies.

Tablets 'one of the fastest-growing technologies in history'

 Tablets are 'one of the most rapidly-adopted technologies in history' according to new research from the US.

 

One in four smartphone owners used a tablet between February and April this year, an increase of 14 per cent over last year.

"Once consumers get their hands on their first tablet, they are using them for any number of media habits," said Mark Donovan, Senior Vice President of Mobile at market research firm comScore.

The research showed that video is especially popular on tablets, with 10 per cent of owners watching video every day on their device, compared with just three per cent of smartphone owners.

More than one in four tablet owner paid to access video, which will be welcome news for entertainment firms in a year where one of the most popular television series, HBO's Game of Thrones, was pirated more than 4 million times per week via the BitTorrent filesharing protocol, according to the TorrentFreak blog.

Apple's iPad accounted for most of the growth in the tablet market. The latest iPad sold three million in its first weekend on shelves, in March this year. The blockbuster launch compared to 14 million total sales in 2010, when the first version was introduced.