Fisher Capital Management Corporate News: Apple heats up legal battle against Samsung with new ITC complaint

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Apple has filed a U.S. trade complaint against Samsung in hopes of blocking the import of the company’s Galaxy S phone and Galaxy Tab touchscreen tablet as the legal dispute between the two companies ramps up.

The new filing comes days after the Cupertino, Calif.-based company asked afederal court to bring sales of the aforementioned devices to a standstill in the U.S. The complaint was lodged with the U.S. International Trade Commission on Tuesday, countering patent infringement claims made by Samsung to the ITC last week in an attempt to block imports of Apple’s iPhone and iPad.

“Samsung has followed each of Apple’s groundbreaking products with imitation products that incorporate Apple’s technology and distinctive design,” Apple wrote in the complaint. If the commission decides to pursue an investigation, the case will be heard in 15 to 18 months.

Apple and Samsung began their legal dispute back in April when Apple accused the Korean electronics giant of copying the look and feel of its devices. The disagreement has since spread to courts in four countries (1, 2). During the case’s proceedings, Apple was granted a request to see copies of Samsung’s unreleased products, while a counter-claim from Samsung was denied.

In addition to competing with the company in the smartphone and tablet markets, Samsung serves as one of Apple’s key component partners, supplying chips for most of their leading products. Given the two close partnership between the two companies, some analysts have been surprised by the intensity of their legal disagreement.

“It has become very public and very ugly, very quickly,” Bloomberg reported Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall as saying. “They’re just going after each other’s throats.”

Marshall believes that an import ban on Samsung’s devices is doubtful and predicts that both companies will eventually reach a settlement and cross-licensing deal. According to the analyst, Apple “may not have a choice” in licensing its intellectual property to Samsung, which has a number of patents Apple needs.

As tensions between the two companies have mounted, some have speculated that Apple plans to reduce its reliance on its rival. Recent rumors suggest the iPhone maker will go with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company instead of Samsung for its “A6” chip in 2012. Meanwhile, Samsung is restructuring its component operations and could be planning to spin off its semiconductor and LCD business to avoid a conflict of interest.

Fisher Capital Management Corporate News : HP Swaps WebOS, PC Execs

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July 11, 2011 06:14pm EST

Hewlett-Packard said it planned to take WebOS “global” by naming Steven DeWitt, the head of HP’s PC business in the Americas, to lead the WebOS business.

And Jon Rubinstein, the man who led WebOS, will now serve as senior vice president for product innovation within its Personal Systems Group, which oversees its PCs, HP said Monday. In June, HP also underwent a shakeup in its enterprise space, paring down some of its top management.

The swap allows HP to scale its WebOS business while injecting a dose of innovation and design flair into its PC business. DeWitt, who has been leading the PSG Americas region at HP, will be responsible for all aspects of the webOS business, including engineering, research and development, sales, marketing and go-to-market support, HP said. Rubinstein, meanwhile, will “leverage Rubinstein’s passion for building exceptional consumer products and his long history of driving game changing innovation, such as webOS,” the company added.

HP also identified a key responsibility for DeWitt: building a developer community. He will lead fully integrated, global developer and independent software vendor program to deliver new consumer and business applications, HP said. In addition, DeWitt will be asked to partner with HP’s existing mobile partners to create mobile solutions that leverage the WebOS operating system.

In February, HP explained its WebOS future as an app-centric one, where the company planned to encourage an ecosystem of app partners, but take over development itself if necessary.

Developing that ecosystem of app development drove Apple to the top of the smartphone market, but has helped Google’s Android mobile operating system, which analysts expect to pass it as the world’s most popular mobile OS. comscore numbers already give it a dominant marketshare among U.S. smartphone providers.

“Innovation is at the core of webOS, and I look forward to working with our talented team of engineers as we strive to develop the industry’s most compelling set of products, solutions and services in markets around the world,” said DeWitt, in a statement. “As part of our investment in the future of webOS, we are working in lock step with the developer community, our channel partners and the start-up community to create an application ecosystem that delivers on HP’s mobile connectivity strategy.”

Since HP has said that it plans to include WebOS on its PC platforms, a move to HP’s PSG does not mean that Rubinstein is being cut off from the OS he helped develop.

HP also enjoys a healthy lead over Dell as the top PC vendor. In the first quarter of 2011, HP enjoyed a 18.9 percent market share versus 12.8 percent for Dell, the world’s number-two vendor. HP also was the dominant PC OEM in the U.S., with 27.0 percent versus 23.1 percent for Dell. HP’s sales dipped about 2.8 percent worldwide and 2.4 percent domestically, year-over-year.

“With the launch of webOS 3.0, our team has delivered a world-class platform for HP to leverage going forward, and it is now time to take things to the next level,” said Rubinstein, in a statement. “With webOS under Stephen DeWitt’s proven leadership, I’m looking forward to my new role and driving further innovation for webOS and other PSG products.”

For more from Mark, follow him on Twitter @MarkHachman.