Time to add another chapter into the ever-growing legal story between Apple and Samsung. Apple today said that it would like to add the Galaxy Note 10.1 and Android 4.1 Jelly Bean (which is present on some Samsung devices) to a lawsuit against Samsung, Bloomberg reports, because it feels that those two products infringe upon patents that it owns. The case is currently going on in California and is scheduled to go to trial in 2014.
The case that Apple is seeking to add the Note 10.1 and Jelly Bean to is the same one that Samsung requested that the iPhone 5 be added to last month. Considering how far off the start of the actual trial in this case is, it's not a surprise to see Apple and Samsung attempt to add their competitor's newest products as they're released. We'll have to wait a while to see how this whole thing shakes out, but I'm sure that we'll continue to see Apple and Samsung throw legal blows against one another until then.
UPDATE: Bloomberg has updated its original article with more information from Apple and Samsung's attorneys. Andrew Liao, an Apple lawyer, said that the Galaxy Nexus is the only device running Android 4.1 Jelly Bean that the Cupertino firm wants added to its complaint. However, Apple would also like to add 17 Samsung products that could use a stylus, even if the devices don't actually ship with one in the box.
Meanwhile, Samsung lawyer Victoria Maroulis said that the iPhone 5 is the only device that Samsung wants added to the case. She added that Samsung is against the addition of 17 stylus-using pieces of hardware because including those products would "enlarge the case significantly." The judge in the case didn't make any ruling today, saying that he's worried that if he denied both requests, Apple and Samsung would just file totally new lawsuits. Sounds like a valid concern to me.
