Samsung Sues Apple Over Notification Center

Samsung has filed a new patent infringement lawsuit against Apple in South Korea over the iPhone and iPad's Notification Center feature. Lawsuit details aren't available yet, but it's likely the electronics maker is targeting technology that doesn't classify as standards essential.

Samsung targets Notifications in new Apple patent lawsuitSamsung targets Notifications in new Apple patent lawsuit

"In all likelihood this is a non-standard-essential patent," Florian Muller of Foss Patents said. "Clearly, Samsung needs to step up its non-SEP assertions against Apple because its original SEP-centric litigation strategy has been a near-total failure."

Apple's Notification Center feature has often been called a copy of Android's notifications, and does look strikingly similar. Samsung may have waited to target the iOS feature until a Google notifications-related patent was finally granted -- which happened about a month ago -- and could be on loan to Samsung. Samsung may have its own patent that builds on Google's, too.

Samsung and Apple have been fighting in courts around the world over mobile device patent infringement claims. The most notable involved what appeared to be a big win for Apple when a U.S. Federal Court Jury ruled that Samsung willfully infringed on several iPad-related patents. Apple was awarded over US$1 billion in damages, but the court has since refused to grant Apple an injunction blocking the sale of Samsung's tablets and smartphones in the country.

Without any further details it's hard to speculate on Samsung's likelihood of winning the case, although South Korea's courts are more likely to look favorably on the company's arguments than some other courts.

Neither company has commented on the lawsuit.

[Thanks to Patently Apple for the heads up.]