After losing some cases against Motorola Mobility, Apple is left licking its wounds, and is out to get blood.  On Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit against Motorola in a US court to stop Motorola from using some patents against them in German courts.

According to Apple, Motorola sued them for patents that fall under FRAND and in doing so, they are in violation of their patent licensing agreement with Qualcomm.

“When Apple makes a promise to license its standards essential patents under FRAND terms, Apple will not waiver,” the suit reads. “Motorola, on the other hand, has pursued an aggressive international campaign of litigation that flies in the face of its promise to license its cellular standards essential patents on FRAND terms.”

Apple argues that they are a Qualcomm customer, making them a third-party beneficiary of Motorola’s agreement with Qualcomm. Under that agreement, Motorola’s rights under certain patents are exhausted.

Motorola representative Christa Smith declined to comment on the specific details of the case but said the company “will continue to vigorously protect our intellectual property.”

And Apple’s problem in China escalates as authorities started seizing iPads in Apple Stores and other retailers after receiving a letter from Shenzhen Proview Technology asking them to do so because of trademark violation.  Wang, an official of the economic investigation unit of the city’s Xinhua district, stated that “All the Apple iPads in the big shopping malls and supermarkets have been taken off shelves in Xinhua district.”

Shenzhen Proview is requesting other cities to follow suit.  Apple representatives refuse to comment.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Samsung officially launched their first tablet that comes equipped with the Android 4.0. The new tablet, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 (7.0) features a 7-inch 1024 x 600 PLS LCD display, 1GHz dual-core processor paired with 1GB of RAM, a 3-megapixel rear facing camera with no LED flash, VGA front-facing camera, 10.5mm thick, WiFi, Bluetooth 3.0, A-GPS, a microSD card slot, 4,000 mAh battery, available in Wi-FI and 3G version and comes in 16GB and 32 GB.  The tablet is the first in the series of cheap Samsung tablets slated for this year.  The Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 will be available in March, starting in the UK.

“Two years ago, Samsung GALAXY Tab began to offer customers more possibilities on the go. Since then, Samsung has actively enhanced our tablet line-up with several tablets in different sizes,” said JK Shin, President of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung Electronics. “The new GALAXY Tab 2 (7.0) will provide people with delighted multimedia experience and allow efficient communication.”

Aside from Motorola, Apple aims to block sales of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the US, again for patent infringement.  According to Apple, the Galaxy Nexus has features that are known to have been from iPhones.    Apple brought a motion for a preliminary injunction against the device last Thursday with the United States District Court for the Northern District of California.  The patents included in the lawsuit are: a “data tapping” patent, a patent involving Siri and unified search, a new slide-to-unlock patent, and a word-completion patent for touch-screen entry of text.

Google Invading Your Home

Last week, Google was reported to be working on launching a cloud storage service and a home entertainment system to rival Sonos and AirPlay but apparently, that’s not the only thing the search giant is working on.

According to SlashGear, Google is working on a “next generation personal communication device.”  The report is based on Google’s most recent FCC filings, requesting permission to test the said device outside their labs on Bluetooth and WiFi networks in and around the homes of 102 Google employees.  Like the home entertainment device, this too will be Google-made and is now being tested.

Rumors of a next-gen device only gained traction when Google posted an update in its blog last night, tipping off users that some changes will be made to Google TV in the coming days.  The update is specific to YouTube’s app for Google TV, with improvements to search and navigation, new discovery tools and more points of interaction for your Google TV remote.

But not everyone’s pleased with Google’s rapid-fire release schedule for new consumer products.  Last week’s reports regarding the Google Wallet PIN being easily cracked concerned consumers using the service.  Google was firm on their stand that the service is secure. But according to a report from SlashGear, Google disabled the use of prepaid credit cards in Google Wallet to prevent unauthorized access in case the phone gets stolen or lost.  As for debit cards used in Google Wallet, they are still deemed safe and Google is said to be working on a patch that will repair the vulnerability that Wallet Cracker exposed.