Samsung Sues to Ban iPhone, iPad Sales in US

Apple took its lawsuit duel with Samsung to Samsung's home turf of South Korea last week, so now Samsung is stepping up its counterattack in Apple's home, filing a complaint with the International Trade Commission to stop the sale of Apple iPhones and iPads in the United States. Analysts say the flood of lawsuits by Samsung is an attempt to get Apple to settle its initial lawsuit in April over the design of Samsung's smartphones and tablet computers.

Samsung now has lawsuits against Apple in South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States. "To have lawsuits in many countries at the start, it's the best way to protect their patents," a law professor at Seoul National University told the Wall Street Journal. Analysts also say that the companies' lawsuits reflect their radically different approaches, with Apple's lawsuits focused on design elements, but Samsung's centering on technological details. (More Samsung stories.)