Apple seeks to block US sales of Samsung’s Galaxy S III smartphone

Apple is seeking to block sales of Samsung's new Galaxy smartphone in the US market, as the technology giant expands its patent war with its South Korean rival.

The Cupertino, California-based company has asked a federal judge in California to include the Galaxy S III to its earlier lawsuit seeking the ban on US sales of three of its smart phone models and the Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet computer.

In early December 2011, Judge Lucy Koh of the US district in San Jose, California denied Apple's request for a preliminary injunction on Samsung and last week rejected Apple's renewed plea to ban US sales of Samsung smartphones and the Tab, while the case is still before a federal court of appeals.

The Samsung Galaxy S III will go on sale in the US on the 21 of this month through four carriers after it was released in the UK last month.

Apple said that the Galaxy S III infringes at least two of the its patents, which are at issue for exactly same reasons it filed the patent lawsuit for earlier versions of Samsung's  smartphones and the Tab.

Helped by its fast-selling Galaxy series smartphones, Samsung captured a record 25-per cent of the global market share in the first quarter of the current year to become the world's number one handset vendor for the first time.