Samsung Electronics said yesterday that it might take legal action against Apple after the U.S. firm filed a suit alleging that the Galaxy smartphones and tablet computers infringed patents of the iPhone and iPad.

Apple claimed that Samsung violated 16 of its patents and trademarks by copying the product design, user interface and packaging, while Samsung said that it is suspicious that Apple violated some of Samsung’s technologies.

The dispute underscores growing tension between Apple and Samsung despite the fact that Samsung is a major components supplier to the Apple iPad and iPhone.

Analysts said the legal battle appears to reflect Apple’s concerns that Samsung may be taking away market share in the smartphone and tablet PC segments.

Sales of Samsung products have risen because of its use of the popular and widely available Android operating system created by Google, while Apple relies on its own iOS proprietary system.

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smartphone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” said Apple in its lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Northern California on April 15.

Tensions between the two firms erupted last month when Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, called Samsung and other competitors “copycats” when he introduced the iPad2.

Samsung officials said that they would no longer tolerate the situation after Apple filed the lawsuit.

“Although Apple is an important business partner, we have no choice but to consider legal action since they sued us first,” said a Samsung official. “Business is business and lawsuits are lawsuits. Since we are not just a device manufacturer but hold many telecommunications technology patents, we believe that Apple has violated many of our rights.”

Samsung officials said they were still reviewing the lawsuit and could not reveal the legal action the Korean firm might take. Apple has already filed 11 other lawsuits against other device manufacturers, including Motorola, HTC and Nokia.

Industry experts said that it will be hard for Apple to part ways with Samsung as a supplier because Toshiba’s production of NAND flash memory has suffered a setback as a result of the recent earthquake in Japan, while Samsung is the world’s No. 1 NAND flash memory producer.


By Jung Seung-hyun [seungjung@joongang.co.kr]