Apr 19, 2011 10:57 GMT  ·  By

When it rains, it pours, and when it comes to lawsuits involving Apple and other telecoms companies, there is always room for one more. The latest one was filed against South Korean handset vendor Samsung, and some of its Android-based devices. To be more precise, Apple feels that Samsung's Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Nexus S, and Galaxy Tab products, all running under Android, sport shapes that are far too similar to its iPhone 3G / 3GS models.

But there's more to it, as the company also claims that there are interface elements on Samsungs' said devices that are also infringing some of its patents.

“Even the icons in earlier versions of the Samsung smart phones looked different because they had a variety of shapes -- and did not appear as a field of square icons with rounded corners,” Apple states in the filing.

It's a common fact that this is not the first time Apple gets into legal battles with other telecoms companies over UI elements or other features of mobile phones.

Not long ago, the company filed complains against Nokia, claiming that the Finnish company infringes various patents it holds on user experiences, and also sued HTC over similar allegations.

According to an article on Bloomberg, the U.S. International Trade Commission suggested that the two companies should not be found liable in the said legal battles.

“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging. This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas,” an Apple representative reportedly stated.

Samsung, of course, announced that it would actively respond to this lawsuit. A countersuit is pending, since the South Korean handset vendor has various patents in wireless technologies that Apple might have infringed.

“We think Apple has violated our patents in communications standards,” Chung Jae-woong, a spokesman at Samsung Electronics, said by phone, a recent article on YonhapNews reads. “We are considering a counterclaim.”

Apple filed the lawsuit against Samsung on Friday in U.S. District Court in Northern California.