Samsung seeks iPhone 4S ban in Japan and Australia

Samsung Electronics has fired back at Apple in the companies' increasingly hostile global patent battle, filing two applications for injunctions that would bar sales of the new iPhone in Japan and Australia.

South Korea-based Samsung asked the Tokyo District Court and Australia's Federal Court on Monday to grant the preliminary orders against the iPhone 4S, which went on sale Friday, saying Apple is enjoying a "free ride on our technology."

The electronics conglomerate said it is also asking another Japanese court to block sales of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2.

Last week, Apple won an injunction in the Australian Federal Court barring Samsung from selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer in the country, and appeared close to getting an injunction in the United States against it and Samsung's Galaxy S 4G smartphone.

Apple has accused Samsung of manufacturing tablet computers and smartphones that "slavishly copy" the iPad and iPhone. Samsung's retort is that Apple's mobile devices violate its patents on wireless communications.

The intellectual property war spans 10 countries, including France, Germany and Italy, and involves more than 20 lawsuits. In another recent battle round, a Dutch court refused to grant Samsung an injunction on Friday that would have barred iPhone and iPad sales in the Netherlands.

The legal disputes highlight the tangled nature of intellectual property in mobile communications, in which dozens of companies hold thousands of sometimes overlapping patents covering even the most basic device functions.