Apple to seek ban on Samsung S3

No sooner has the U.S. version of the Samsung Galaxy S III been made available to pre-order than Apple is back in U.S. Court trying to get the highly anticipated unit banned from sales in the States. Apple added the device to its motion to have a preliminary injunction placed on the Samsung GALAXY Nexus. Apple is on the warpath having asked the ITC for an immediate ban on 29 HTC devices that the Cupertino based firm claims infringes on its patents.

Apple purchased a Samsung Galaxy S III in the U.K. and is claiming that the device uses a data tapping patent owned by Apple and is one the patents that the tech titan is claiming that the HTC devices infringe on. The other patent that Apple claims the Samsung Galaxy S III infringes on has to do with unified search as it relates to Siri. Apple is said to be looking at some other patents including its new slide-to-unlock patent and one that covers autocomplete. The iPhone manufacturer's motion noted that press reports say that 9 million units of the Samsung Galaxy S III have been pre-ordered (a claim, by the way, that came from a Samsung executive), making the phone the "the most extensively preordered piece of consumer electronics in history."
(excerpt: Phonearena.com)

What is data tapping?

*Data Tapping explained:
The patent in question covers so-called "data-tapping," a useful technology that allows the user to trigger an action by tapping a specific piece of data. For example, data tapping allows a smartphone user who calls up a Web page with a phone number listed on it to simply click the number, dialing it from the phone's dialer application. Clicking an email address would compose an email with the recipient automatically filled in.
(excerpt: pcmag.com)