Apple and Samsung will meet in San Francisco on May 21 and 22 to talk settlement. Settling this massively-escalated, planet-spanning dispute will be a Herculean task:
All in all, the parties have filed approximately 50 lawsuits against each other, but that's just the number of initial filings. After an initial filing, lawsuits can be consolidated (which effectively happened to the first two lawsuits the parties filed against each other in California) or, which happened far more frequently, split up into multiple lawsuits by the courts. For example, German courts usually look at only one patent per litigation, and sometimes assign more than one case number per patent if there's a delay with serving the complaint on one of two or more defendants. Also, these parties tend to appeal each and every decision, and the list below doesn't contain cases before appeals courts. Furthermore, I'm sure that thre are more nullity actions before the German Federal Patent Court than the ones on the list I obtained (Samsung definitely brought several such actions). Counting all of those additional cases not listed below, the number of cases between the parties is far above 50 -- it might even be closer to 100.
Here's a list of all initial filings the parties brought against each other between April 2011 (when the dispute started) and April 25, 2012 (the date of the last update I received), to the extent that I've been able to find out about them, and sorted by country and venue:
United States
U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. (case no. 5:11-cv-01846, filed on 04/15/11; includes substance of formerly separate case no. 5:11-cv-2079, filed on 04/27/11)
U.S. International Trade Commission
In the Matter of Certain Mobile Electronic Devices (Samsung v. Apple; investigation no. 337-TA-794, complaint filed on 06/28/11)
In the Matter of Certain Electronic Digital Media Devices and Components Thereof
(Apple v. Samsung; investigation no. 337-TA-796, complaint filed on 07/05/11)
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. et al. v. Apple Inc. (case no. 1:11-cv-00573, filed on 06/28/11; mirrors simultaneous ITC complaint)
Germany
Landgericht Mannheim
(Mannheim Regional Court)Samsung Electronics GmbH v. Apple, Inc. and Apple GmbH (case no. 7 O 247/11, filed on 04/21/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 7 O 166/11, filed on 06/17/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 7 O 70/12; filed on 11/28/11)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd v. Apple Inc. (case nos. 7 O 19/12, 7 O 54/12, 7 O 53/12, and 7 O 18/12; filed on 12/16/11)
Landgericht Düsseldorf
(Düsseldorf Regional Court)Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 14c O 194/11; filed on 08/04/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case nos. 14c O 219/11 and 14c O 219/11, filed on 09/02/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 14c O 255/11, filed on 10/07/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case nos. 14c O 291/11, 14c O 293/11, and 14c O 294/11; filed on 11/25/11)
Landgericht München I
(Munich I Regional Court)Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 21 O 26022/11; filed on 11/28/11)
Bundespatentgericht
(Federal Patent Court, based in Munich)Apple GmbH v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (case no. 5 Ni 49/11, seeking invalidation of EP1005726; filed on 08/05/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics GmbH (case no. 5 Ni 51/11, seeking invalidation of EP1114528; filed on 08/26/11)
Apple GmbH v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (case no. 5 Ni 55/11, seeking invalidation of EP1188269; filed on 09/16/11)
United Kingdom
UK High Court of Justice, Chancery Division, Patents Court
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd v. Apple Retail UK et al. (case no. HC 11 CO 2180, filed on 06/29/11)
France
Tribunal de Grande Instance de Paris
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd and Samsung Electronics France v. Apple France et al. (case no. 11/10464; filed on 07/08/11)
Sasmung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al. v. Apple Inc. et al. (case no. 11/58301; filed on 10/05/11)
Italy
Tribunale di Milano
Samsung Electronics Italia s.p.a. v. Apple Inc. (filed on 06/29/11)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. et al. v. Apple Inc. et al. (case no. 59734/2011; filed on 10/05/11)
The Netherlands
Rechtbank 's-Gravenhage
(The Hague District Court)Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (case nos. KG 11-730 and KG 11-731; filed on 06/27/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (filed on 11/25/11)
Spain
Community Designs Court, Alicante
(EU-wide jurisdiction)Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. and Samsung Electronics Iberia, S.A.U. v. Apple Inc. (case no. unknown, seeking declaratory judgment with respect to Community design no. 00018607-0001; filed on 09/08/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (case no. 755/2011-C; filed on 02/27/12)
Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., Samsung Electronics Benelux B.V., Samsung Electronics Europe Logistics B.V. and Samsung Electronics Overseas B.V. requested invalidation of five Community designs held by Apple; filed on 08/09/11
South Korea
서울중앙지방법원 (Seoul Central District Court)
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple Korea Ltd (case no. 2011 Kahap 39552; filed on 04/21/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (case no. 2011 Gahap 63647; filed on 06/22/11)
Japan
東京地方裁判所 (Tokyo District Court)
Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. v. Apple Japan, Inc. (case nos. 2011 (Yo) No. 22027 and 2011 (Yo) No. 22028; filed on 04/21/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Japan Corp. (case nos. 2011 (Yo) No. 22048 and 2011 (Yo) No. 22049; filed on 06/17/11)
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Japan Corp. (case nos. 2011 (Yo) No. 27781 and 2011 (Yo) No. 27941; filed on 08/23/11)
Apple Japan, Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd (case nos. 2011 (Wa) 30843 and 2011 (Wa) 38969; filed on 09/16/11)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. v. Apple Inc. (case nos. 2011 (Yo) 22079, 2011 (Yo) 22080, 2011 (Yo) 22081, and 2011 (Yo) 22082; filed on 10/17/11)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd v. Apple Japan, Inc. (2011 (Yo) 22098M; filed on 12/06/11)
Australia
Federal Court of Australia
Apple Inc. v. Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (case no. NSD1243/2011; filed on 07/28/11)
Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. v. Apple Inc. (case no. NSD1792/2011; filed on 10/26/11)
Furthermore, the European Commission is formally investigating Samsung's enforcement of patents essential to wireless industry standards against Apple (case no. COMP/C-3/39.939 – Enforcement of standard essential patents in the mobile telephony sector within the meaning of Article 11(6) of Council Regulation No 1/2003 and Article 2(1) of Regulation No 773/2004; formally launched on 01/30/12).
Let me remind you: this list is not exhaustive. But as far as I can see, it's the most comprehensive one of its kind to have been published.
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