Apple and Samsung furnish list of accused devices, patents for upcoming trial

As part of the slow march toward the second Apple v. Samsung patent trial to take place in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, both parties entered proposed narrowed patent claims to presiding Judge Lucy Koh.

Both Apple and Samsung were ordered to limit their respective cases to a manageable size, which Judge Koh first defined as 25 patent claims and 25 products in early 2013. As noted by FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, the parties went through a few rounds of case narrowing since then and have successfully whittled the number of patents and accused products down to five and ten, respectively.

Samsung is actually asserting five claims from four patents after having its case pared down in January when Judge Koh invalidated an entire patent in a pre-trial summary judgment. With the extra allotment dangling, the Korean company chose to assert a second claim from one of its four patents-in-suit.

Apple, on the other hand, escaped the pre-trial phase with all five claims from five different patents intact despite attempts by Samsung to invalidate a control signals property on the grounds of prior art.

Apple's asserted patents and infringing products are as follows:

Patents

• U.S. Patent No. 5,946,647 for a "System and method for performing an action on a structure in computer-generated data" - Claim 9
• U.S. Patent No. 6,847,959 for a "Universal interface for retrieval of information in a computer system" - Claim 25
• U.S. Patent No. 7,761,414 for "Asynchronous data synchronization amongst devices" - Claim 20
• U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721 for "Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image" - Claim 8
• U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172 for a "Method, system, and graphical user interface for providing word recommendation" - Claim 18

Products

• Admire
• Galaxy Nexus
• Galaxy Note
• Galaxy Note II
• Galaxy S II
• Galaxy S II Epic 4G Touch
• Galaxy S II Skyrocket
• Galaxy S III
• Galaxy Tab 2 10.1
• Stratosphere

Samsung's asserted patents and infringing products:

Patents

• U.S. Patent No. 7,756,087 for a "Method and apparatus for performing non-scheduled transmission in a mobile communication system for supporting an enhanced uplink data channel" - Claim 10
• U.S. Patent No. 7,551,596 for a "Method and apparatus for signaling control information of uplink packet data service in mobile communication system" - Claim 13
• U.S. Patent No. 6,226,449 for an "Apparatus for recording and reproducing digital image and speech" - Claim 27
• U.S. Patent No. 5,579,239 for a "Remote video transmission system" - Claims 1 and 15

Products

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 4S
• iPhone 5
• iPad 2
• iPad 3
• iPad 4
• iPad Mini
• iPod Touch (5th generation)
• iPod Touch (4th generation)
• MacBook Pro

Mueller points out that neither company's current-generation products are being accused of infringement, a fact that shines a light on the speed of existing U.S. patent litigation procedures. Instead, devices accused are from 2012 or later, many of which are no longer sold or even manufactured. The products, however, can serve as a basis for damages and injunctive relief, while any trial decisions can have implications on future hearings.

Finally, Samsung also filed a status update on an ongoing effort to invalidate Apple's '172 patent-in-suit. An ex parte, or anonymous, petition to have the property reexamined has seen progress, with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office now agreeing to take a closer look at certain aspects of the patent.

The second Apple v. Samsung court battle is scheduled to start trial proceedings on March 31.