Apple is seeking a ban on Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone before the device gets introduced in the U.S. later in June. Bloomberg reported that the judge overseeing the case is considering expediting the request and might bundle it together with an existing patent infringement case before her bench.
“I just don’t have the human bandwidth [for the escalating complaints between the two companies],” Judge Lucy Koh said, according to Bloomberg. “I wanted to give some notice that I cannot be an Apple v. Samsung judge.”
Josh Krevitt, an Apple attorney, said that Apple was being aggressive with its ban requests because Samsung’s tactic is to release new successive models before court systems and regulatory bodies can adjudicate complaints.
Speaking for Samsung, attorney Bill Price told Judge Koh that there is no “established emergency.” He added that any pretense at an emergency comes only from Apple’s inability, “[to] compete against the new features” [of Samsung’s Galaxy S III].”
He said that Apple is trying to, “prevent a phone from getting to the public that is better than Apple’s in many, many respects.”
Judge Koh has asked Samsung to demonstrate how its new device is “colorably different” from the Galaxy Nexus, which is ostensibly the subject of the case she was already hearing.
Apple and Samsung have been at each other’s legal throats for years, even while they remain manufacturing partners. Samsung provides a number of components for Apple devices, and Apple is one of the South Korea company’s biggest customers.
Apple CEO Tim Cook and Samsung CEO Choi Gee-sung recently entered into negotiations over their patent disputes, but those talks failed.