Samsung Electronics filed patent lawsuits against Apple over the US firm's iPhone and iPad in a tit-for-tat case after Apple claimed Samsung's smartphones and tablets "slavishly" copied its products.

Samsung's counter lawsuit, its first against its biggest client, comes days before it launches a new product and could jeopardise business ties between the two companies, as Apple relies on Samsung for component supplies such as chips and LCD displays.

"Apple is quite annoyed by Samsung's fast rise in a market which it virtually created," James Song, an analyst at Daewoo Securities, was quoted as saying in our sister publication, the Gulf Daily News.

"It's quite threatening to see how quickly Samsung plays catchup, and Apple might have felt a strong urge to put a brake on its march just when Samsung is set to roll out a new smartphone in May ahead of its new iPhone."

Apple sold 18.6 million iPhones last quarter alone. Samsung, which had a fraction of the booming market until early last year, is estimated to have sold around 13m units of smartphones in January-March and aims to sell 60m units this year.

Apple filed a lawsuit last Friday alleging Samsung violated patents and trademarks of its iPhone and iPad, as the popular gadgets are being threatened by the fast rise of rival devices based on Google's free Android operating system.

Samsung said in a statement yesterday that Apple's iPhone and iPad infringe Samsung's 10 mobile technology patents and it called for Apple to stop infringing its technology and compensate the company.

Operating systems have emerged as the key battlefield for dominance of the world's smartphone market.

Android became the most popular smartphone software in the US in the three months ending in February, ahead of Apple and Research in Motion, according to a recent survey by research firm comScore.

Samsung is one of the fastest growing smartphone makers on the back of the Android boom and has emerged as Apple's strongest competitor in the tablet market, with models in three sizes.

Samsung said the suits, filed in South Korea, Japan and Germany, involved 10 alleged infringements of patents mainly involving power reduction during data transmission, 3G technology for reducing errors during data transmission, and wireless data communication technology. – TradeArabia News Service