Apple has requested a US preliminary injunction against Samsung’s recently-launched flagship smartphone, the Galaxy S III. The complaint has been added to an injunction motion made in February against Samsung’s Galaxy Nexus, in a filing with a California court.
 
Apple says the Galaxy S III infringes two of the four patents it named in connection with the Galaxy Nexus, namely the ’604 patent for the Siri voice search technology and the ‘647 patent related to 'data tapping' in which the device offers users possible information – such as phone number – with just the first few digits entered. A preliminary injunction hearing is due to be held today.
 
Apple is also understood to be looking at potential infringements by the Galaxy S III of its slide-to-unlock and autocomplete features, which were the other two patents cited in the original Galaxy Nexus lawsuit.
 
Samsung has called on the court to reject Apple’s motion on the grounds that it is too late to supplement February’s Galaxy Nexus motion with a new complaint.
 
Samsung reportedly received nine million pre-orders for the S III before it went on sale. It was launched in the UK on 29 May and is due to arrive in the US on 21 June.
 
The Apple action is the latest in a long line of lawsuits the companies have filed against each other around the world regarding technology patent infringement and design. Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung are understood to have met in recent weeks in an attempt to settle their wide-ranging legal disputes, although little progress appears to have been made.