Samsung Galaxy S3 on the way to being banned by Apple

Apple accused Samsung of flooding the market with “copycat products” and added the Galaxy S III smartphone to a list of models that the Cupertino, California-based company says infringe its patents. The device is the latest version in Samsung’s best-selling smartphone series and wasn’t yet on sale in the U.S. when Apple, which won $1.05 billion in damages in August, filed its first lawsuit last year.

“Apple’s move may not have an immediate impact on sales, but the image for the new products is getting hurt,” Ahn Seong Ho, a Seoul-based analyst at Hanwha Securities Co., said by telephone today. “The news headlines are all implying that while Apple is leading innovations, Samsung just copied.”

Apple’s revised complaint filed on Aug. 31 in federal court in San Jose, California, builds on the jury verdict reached a week earlier in the same court. In the filing, the company sought a finding that the Suwon, South Korea-based competitor’s products infringe its patents and an order barring Samsung from further infringement, plus monetary damages.

Samsung will take the necessary legal measures to keep its products available in the U.S., the Korean company said in a statement on Sept. 1. Apple is seeking to limit consumer choice, Samsung said.

Galaxy Phones

The Samsung smartphones named in the complaint are: Galaxy S III - Verizon, Galaxy Note, Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch, Galaxy S II, Galaxy S II - T-Mobile, Galaxy S II - AT&T, Galaxy Nexus, Illusion, Captivate Glide, Exhibit II 4G, Stratosphere, Transform Ultra, Admire, Conquer 4G, and Dart. Other devices covered by the filing are the Galaxy Player 4.0 and Galaxy Player 5.0 media players, and the Galaxy Note 10.1, Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus and Galaxy Tab 8.9 tablets.

The Galaxy S III went on sale in the U.S. in June.

In the earlier San Jose case, Apple wanted eight Samsung mobile devices blocked in the country. U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh ruled Aug. 28 that based on the Aug. 24 verdict, Apple’s request for a permanent ban on U.S. sales of eight Samsung mobile devices will be considered at a Dec. 6 hearing.