Apple files for preliminary injunction against Samsung's Galaxy Nexus

Apple is taking the patent war against Samsung to the latest "Google phone." It has filed for a preliminary injunction against the sale of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the first device to carry the latest version of Android (Ice Cream Sandwich, Android 4.0).

The filing was made on Thursday with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. A public, redacted version of the filing became available late on Friday.

Apple's filing is based on the following four patents:

• A new slide-to-unlock patent. You might recall that the patent made Taiwan's premier extremely nervous.
• The "data tapping" patent based on which the ITC issued a narrow import ban against HTC. HTC later said it developed a workaround, and allows users to tap a phone number in an e-mail to make a phone call
• A patent related to Siri and unified search
• A word completion patent for touchscreen entry of text

Earlier this month, a German court rejected Apple's request to bar sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in that country. In that case, however, Apple claimed the Galaxy Nexus too closely resembled its own iPhone products.

This new case, Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents notes, "focuses completely on strong technical patents" as opposed to "softer, design-related rights."

In October, Samsung said it had designed the Galaxy Nexus to avoid patent challenges, but the mobile chief of Samsung, Shin Jong-kyun, added that he couldn't guarantee it would be 100 percent "Apple-proof."