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WSJ: Apple seeks injunction to block sales of Samsung's Galaxy Nexus

Apple is asking for a preliminary injunction to block US sales of the Galaxy Nexus, according to the Wall Street Journal. The current suit, filed in San Jose's federal district court on Wednesday of this past week, accuses Samsung's phone of infringing on four Apple patents.

The patents in question include "unified search," slide-to-unlock, data tapping (data detectors) and word completion technologies. FOSS Patents refers to them as the "Four Horsemen" of patent claims; the site also suggests that this action against the flagship Ice Cream Sandwich 4.0 Android device is attacking core features of "stock Android." The data detector patent (which identifies appointment dates, phone numbers or addresses and makes them clickable/actionable links) was already ruled valid by the ITC, but Google kept it in Ice Cream Sandwich without seeking a license from Apple.

Apple is also pursuing action against Motorola in Germany; more here. The German suit is intended to block Motorola's attempts (and presumably Moto buyer Google's intents) to enforce high licensing fees on essential wireless patents it already licensed to Qualcomm, which makes the wireless 3G chips in the iPhone. Motorola asked Qualcomm to terminate Apple's licenses as of February 10, 2011.

[Hat tip Apple 2.0]