And so the legal battles continue. In what has turned into a legal brouhaha of global proportions, Apple has filed a patent lawsuit against Samsung in South Korea, claiming that Samsung’s Galaxy line of smartphones and tablet computers copies its iPhone and iPad devices, reports "The New York Times" (http://macte.ch/8DWIY).

Apple filed a similar suit in the United States in April. Samsung has filed countersuits, accusing Apple of patent violations.

Meanwhile, in China, Apple stores in Beijing are being sued for selling used iPhones as new ones, reports the "People's Daily Online" (http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90882/7572675.html). Six Beijing consumers who bought iPhones in Apple stores at Xicheng district's Xidan Joy City and Chaoyang district's Sanlitun, and some other authorized dealers have filed lawsuits against Apple.

They say they bought what they thought were new phones, only to find they had a shorter warranty than the normal one-year one, says the "People's Daily Online." The consumers are asking for compensation at twice the price of the cellphone and that Apple should pay their legal fees and also apologize to them, the article adds.

What's more, Software Restore Solutions is suing Apple (http://macte.ch/o8p3m) for patent infringement, saying over the Disk Utility feature of Mac OS X copied its technology per the patent, "Workgroup network manager for controlling the operation of workstations within the computer network." The patent was filed in the Illinois Northern District court.

-- Dennis Sellers