Here we go again. Samsung recently filed a new patent infringement lawsuit in Korea against Apple, this time over the iOS version of Notification Center. Samsung claims the feature, which debuted two years ago, infringes on its patent. News of this first came from South Korean news site iNews24.
Apple’s iOS Notification Center is similar to an Android feature called Status Bar, which Google just received a U.S. patent for. Apple recently brought the Notification Center to the Mac with OS X Mountain Lion.
This Samsung patent isn’t believed to be a “standard essential” implementation of the idea, unlike many of the patents Samsung uses against Apple. It’s not clear if the patent Samsung is using is one of its own or one that Google now owns for its similar technology. Apple’s Notification Center is different from both companies’ version of the basic concept. For instance, it features Facebook and Twitter integration by default, but it’s clearly Apple’s own version of the concept that first showed up in Android phones.
Notification Center shows updates in email, Messages, texts, weather, calendar events, and individual app alerts through a drag-down screen that is accessible on all iOS devices. Users can personalize their Notification Center by allowing or disallowing specific apps to show alerts through preferences. It’s not yet known which part of Apple’s Notification Center Samsung claims violates their patent. It’s unlikely that Samsung tried to warn Apple or offer licensing terms before filing the lawsuit in South Korea, like Apple did before suing Samsung in a U.S. court.
Image Credit: Techindustriya
