Apple accuses Samsung of pirating, stealing and counterfeiting in letter

When we characterized the Samsung-Apple legal battles as being the modern equivalent of the Hatfields-McCoys feud, we firmly had our tongue placed in cheek. Not anymore. First, let's recap. The court has granted a motion giving Samsung what it asked for, an expedited hearing on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction. (more on that below) It also accepted Apple's response to the temporary stay on the injunction which will be taken into consideration. Additionally, Apple complained about Sprint and Google filing amicus curiae (friend of the court) briefs in favor of Samsung. Apple accused Google of not being an uninterested third party since it developed the Samsung GALAXY Nexus with Samsung. The Cupertino based firm said that Google was trying to hide its relationship with Samsung. 

Samsung was granted an expedited hearing, as we said, for the preliminary injunction Apple won on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. The injunction was later stayed by a Federal Appeals Court pending the hearing. As a result of Samsung's legal victory, the Korean based manufacturer must submit its court brief by the 16th of July to the U.S. Court of Appeals. Apple will have 14 days to respond and final comments will take place on the 6th of August.

Now comes the part of the article you were waiting for. You might recall that we told you on Friday that Apple had its lawyers write letters to retailers reminding them that thanks to preliminary injunctions, the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 tablet and the Samsung GALAXY Nexus should not be sold. The letters were sent before the Appeals Court put a stay on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus preliminary injunction. Samsung, as you might guess, didn't take too kindly to this action. Apple defended itself  in a letter that included the following:  "It is not a legally cognizable harm to halt downstream sales of stolen, pirated, counterfeit, or infringing products." Now, we were taught that if you don't have something nice to say about someone, you don't talk about them at all. But in this one sentence, Apple is accusing Samsung of counterfeiting, stealing and pirating. And something tells us that this is just the beginning. Put it this way, you wouldn't call Apple and Samsung to meet you for breakfast at IHOP (or is it iHop?).

source: electronista