Samsung adds the iPhone 5 to its patent lawsuit, gets Galaxy Tab 10.1 sales ban lifted

Samsung has officially added the iPhone 5 to its long-running lawsuit against Apple.

This is the patent infringement lawsuit that Samsung originally filed against Apple in April 2011. Sammy took this legal action to counter Apple's 2011 federal complaint - the one Apple recently won, and from which Apple received over $1 billion in compensation.

Samsung's suit claims that Apple is infringing eight different patents. Six utility patents for things like keyboards, voice inputs, and audio streaming, and two standard essential patents for data transfer on a mobile network.

In this lawsuit, Samsung targets devices like the iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPad 2, and the new iPad. Now, though - as Samsung threatened to do in September - Apple's recently released iPhone 5 has been added to the pile.

A hearing will be held on November 6th, where a judge will decide whether Samsung can add the iPhone 5 to its case. The actual case will go to trial in 2014. (Enough time to add the iPhone 6, eh, Samsung?)

In a statement made to Reuters, Samsung said: "... we have little choice but to take the steps necessary to protect our innovations and intellectual property rights."

In the same California court in which Samsung filed the above motion, a judge has lifted the US sales ban of the South Korean's manufacturer's Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet. Apple had asked for an injunction against its sale because The Big A claimed it infringed its iPad-related design patents.

While Apple enjoyed an overwhelming victory against Samsung back in August, the Galaxy Tab 10.1 was found, by the jury, to not infringe Apple's patents. Therefore, the tablet can now be sold in North America. Get 'em while they're hot.