Samsung disables Google search function in Galaxy S3 intl. version

PanARMENIAN.Net - Samsung has disabled an advanced search function in an update to the international version of its flagship Galaxy S3 smartphone, following a patent dispute with Apple.

Once the software is installed the phones no longer search contacts, apps and other on-device material using software developed by Google. Android Central, which revealed the news, noted that users were not told the update would disable the service. It follows a similar move in the U.S.

Apple claims the innovation infringes its patent to a single search interface which it uses in its Siri app to collate results from a range of sources. The iPhone maker had already managed to enforce a brief sales ban on another Samsung handset - the Galaxy Nexus - in the U.S. because of the patent.

That dispute will be considered again by a Washington-based court on August 20 - but whatever the ruling, it would not have applied to the GT-i9300 (S3) model sold in the UK and other places outside the U.S.

The move marks the latest development in a long string of lawsuits between the two firms over the technologies and designs of their mobile devices.

Apple was defeated in a London court earlier this month when it tried to have Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets banned in the UK after it failed to convince a judge that the South Korean firm had copied the look of its iPad.

The California-based company was ordered to publish the fact that its competitor had not infringed its registered design on its website and in magazines as a consequence.

However, it was more successful in Germany on Tuesday, July 24 when an appeals court in Dusseldorf extended a preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Tab 7.7 across the EU because of a related claim.

The two firms are set to clash again in the U.S. on Monday when a jury will hear patent infringement suits filed by both companies against the other.

According to a court filing posted on the Foss Patents blog, Apple is seeking $2.5bn (£1.6bn) in lost profits and royalty fees but is offering a fraction of that amount - half a cent in damages for each handset it has sold that uses its rival's technologies - to settle Samsung's countersuit.

Samsung later responded with its own filing, alleging that Apple was trying "to stifle legitimate competition and limit consumer choice to maintain its historically exorbitant profits".