Earlier today a German court ordered two patent rulings which involved Apple Inc. (AAPL) and Samsung. In Mannheim Regional Court Judge Andreas Voss tossed the third lawsuit in a row in which Samsung claimed that AAPL infringed on 3G/UTMS patent.

Samsung has already announced that it will appeal the dismissal of its case. In addition to the ruling in Apple’s favor the German court, according to Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, tossed one of two suits filed by Apple against Samsung over slide-to-unlock.

Apple has seen some success in its legal battle against Android as the Cupertino, Calif. based company won preliminary injunctions against Samsung, however most of them were subsequently lifted.

Samsung still hasn’t been able to enforce any intellectual property right anywhere on this planet against Apple

Mueller on his blog explains that today’s decision does not reduce chances of Apple’s success in other slide-to-unlock lawsuits.

[T]he whole issue here that made Apple lose, for the time being, the slide-to-unlock patent case against Samsung is just the interpretation of certain key terms (“predefined”, “displayed”, “path”). The slide-to-unlock utility model has a large number of claims, and some of those are much broader and don’t have the related limitations.

This week turned out to be great for Apple as the company scored significant victories in German courts. In one of the lawsuits the court ordered that Motorola Mobility cannot enforce standard-essential patent injunction against Apple during its appeal. This suggests that Apple has strong chances in succeeding. We recently reported that in another lawsuit against Motorola, Apple won German injunction over its Photo Gallery patent which enables Apple to enforce the ruling and ask for any infringing product to be destroyed.

According to a new report published by The Korean Times Samsung “is seeking a complete ban” on iPhone 5 sales in Korea even before the device is released in the market.

Just after the arrival of the iPhone 5 here, Samsung plans to take Apple to court here for its violation of Samsung’s wireless technology related patents. For as long as Apple does not drop mobile telecommunications functions, it would be impossible for it to sell its i-branded products without using our patents. We will stick to a strong stance against Apple during the lingering legal fights.

The publication claims that Samsung’s executive is very confident about “a big breakthrough” provided the Korean giant wins in Germany.

Apple is Samsung’s largest customer for NAND flash memory and custom-built A4 and A5 processors. The Cupertino, California-based company has been reportedly looking at alternative suppliers and considering TSMC for future supplies.

Apple has been quite aggressive when it comes to patent litigation by calling companies “copycats” and suing for any possible patent infringement. It’s very interesting to note that Samsung is planning to target an unannounced product with it’s wireless technology patents. Samsung will certainly try to put pressure on Apple to settle the matters out of court.

The Dusseldorf court in Germany recently ruled that Sumsung must cease sales of Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet as it was found to be very similar and a copy of iPad’s design.

In a recent report Reuters also suggested that Samsung could be looking at being awarded an injunction against iPhone 5 in Europe.

Samsung Electronics Co is considering legal action to ban sales of Apple’s new iPhone, a source familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, in what could be its strongest step to defend against claims by the U.S. firm that the South Korean firm had copied its product designs. The source declined to elaborate further on where Samsung planned to take legal actions and the Maeil Business Newspaper reported that the South Korean firm may seek injunction request on Apple’s new iPhone in Europe.

Apple is widely expected to announce the release date for iPhone 5 during a media event rumored to be held on October 4th. The fifth-gen iPhone according to speculation and previous reports will feature 8 megapixel camera, dual-core A5 chip, higher RAM and a radically thinner design.

{via 9to5 Mac}

FOSS Patents were quick to spot the changes and noted:

The original complaint specifically accused the following products of infringement: “the Samsung Captivate, Continuum, Vibrant, Galaxy S 4G, Epic 4G, Indulge, Mesmerize, Showcase, Fascinate, Nexus S, Gem, Transform, Intercept, and Acclaim smart phones and the Samsung Galaxy Tab tablet.”

The amended complaint accuses all of the above plus the Droid Charge, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S (i9000), Gravity, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, Sidekick, Galaxy Tab 10.1, and Galaxy S II (aka Galaxy S 2). It also specifies the accusation against “Showcase” products, naming the Showcase i500 and Showcase Galaxy S.

It’s interesting to note that the amended filing uses aggressive language and alleges that Samsung “has been even bolder” with “products that blatantly imitate the appearance of Apple’s products to capitalize on Apple’s success”. Apple in its filing repeatedly mentions that when iPhone was introduced it offered unique features which no other company offered.

Prior mobile phones were often bulkier and contained physical keypads. Some had a rocker-style navigation button and sets of buttons for numbers and calling features. Others had a front panel with a partial or full QWERTY keyboard and a screen. None had the clean lines of the iPhone, which immediately caused it to stand apart from the competition.

Samsung has been equally aggressive in fighting back and the chief of mobile division at Samsung, J.K. Shin said:

We have used many similar designs over the past years and it [Apple’s allegation] will not be legally problematic.

This legal battle might just get bigger and we’ll just have to wait to see if the companies reach a settlement or continue to fight.

We recently reported that Samsung filed a notion requesting the court to ask Apple to show prototypes of iPhone 5 and iPad 3 as a part of the “discovery process”. Apple earlier this year filed a lawsuit against Samsung alleging that it had copied the look and feel of iPhone. During a recent interview with WSJ the chief of mobile division at Samsung, J.K. Shin said:

“We didn’t copy Apple’s design,” Mr. Shin said. “We have used many similar designs over the past years and it [Apple’s allegation] will not be legally problematic.” He suggested the scale of the lawsuit could grow, though he didn’t provide more details.

Even though Apple thinks Samsung has violated its “valuable intellectual property rights” the Korean giant feels that it won’t be a major cause of concern however, Mr. Shin did not comment on future implications.

The legal battle between Samsung and Apple continues to grow and doesn’t show signs of an early settlement. The legal spat is expected to continue for at least a few years until some substantial outcome can be seen. Such lawsuits are very common among big corporations and specially when it comes to technology companies where patent lawsuits are very common.

It will be interesting to see if Apple can indeed prove it in the courts that Samsung’s products are very similar to Apple’s design. The Cupertino based company basically feels that Samsung’s product could trick a customer to think that it was actually Apple’s new iPhone. When I visited a local mobile store recently to buy a protective screen cover for my Samsung phone the sales guy actually asked me if it was the iPhone 4. And obviously one can’t deny that Samsung’s UI and hardware design does look very similar to Apple’s design.

Apple recently filed a lawsuit against Samsung for copying their products, user interface, packaging design and technology which are in “violation of Apple’s valuable intellectual property rights.”

Samsung isn’t the only company against which Apple has filed lawsuits, the Cupertino outfit is currently fighting in court against several other Android based handset manufacturers including HTC and Motorola.

We recently reported that a federal judge ordered Samsung to provide Apple with pre-production samples of a number of devices which are not yet available in the market and gave the company 30 days to comply with the order so that Apple Inc. may decide an injunction on the infringement.

Now, This Is My Next reports that Samsung has filed a notion asking Apple to hand over the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 prototypes to the company as a part of the “discovery process.”

It’s important to note that Apple requested for the products which had already been widely publicised as Samsung gave away 5,000 Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Google I/O attendees. However, Samsung’s request is based on a lot of assumptions as the company is assuming that iPhone 5 and iPad 3 could “possibly” be similar to Droid Charge and Galaxy Tab 10.1 which will hit the market around the same time as Apple’s next gen products.

This move if in Samsung’s favour would allow the company to “evaluate any possible similarities so they can prepare for further potential legal action from Apple.”

Samsung’s asking for a court order requiring Apple to produce “the final, commercial versions” of the next-generation iPhone and iPad and their respective packaging by June 13, 2011, so it can evaluate whether there’ll be confusion between Samsung and Apple’s future products. If the final versions aren’t available, Samsung wants “the most current version of each to be produced instead.”

Samsung says it has to see the next-gen iPhone and iPad because it believes those are the products that will actually be on the market against future Samsung devices, so it has to be prepared for Apple’s potential motion for a preliminary injunction. That’s kind of a stretch: Apple can’t really file for a preliminary injunction based on potential confusion with unannounced, unreleased products, so Apple’s lawyers will almost certainly focus on confusion with the company’s existing products.

Samsung has additionally promised to abide by the rules applicable to Apple and only the lawyers will have access to the prototype devices.

Apple has always been and continues to be very secretive about its future products and Samsung is clearly basing their assumptions on rumours which suggest that Apple is indeed working on next gen iPhone and iPad.

This is certainly turning out to be more interesting that we initially thought and it remains to be seen if the latest developments in this case lead to any possible out-of-court settlement or if Apple continues to aggressively fight it out in the court.