Samsung sues to ban iPhone 4S in Japan, Australia

The unending legal war between Samsung and Apple continues with Samsung now trying to block all sales of the iPhone 4S in Japan and Australia.

Samsung announced its intention to seek sales bans of the new phone just hours after it was officially unveiled by Apple.

The two giant consumer electronics firms have been duking it out over the last several months over mobile technology patents.

Apple claimed the Galaxy Tab was nothing but a blatant iPad rip-off and that consumers would even be confused because it was so similar. Many courts around the world have been hesitant to agree but the two that have are among the biggest global economies.

Samsung’s battles have been a bit more esoteric, pointing to its arsenal of mobile patents and claiming Apple is violating them.

Apple has been under a contractual obligation since 2007 to pay Samsung licensing fees for technology used in the iPhone, but within the last year Samsung said Apple has been truant in paying these fees. The legal turmoil between the two has only continued to intensify.

There have been spotty results with the global legal actions each side has taken. While it seems unlikely that Apple will be able to put an injunction on Samsung product sales in the US, it has successfully banned the Galaxy Tab in Germany and Australia.

In this latest legal attack, Samsung claims it owns patents related to the technology used in Apple’s iPhone 4S, which went on sale over the weekend. Simply put, there is no end in sight to the intellectual property scuffle between these two tech titans.