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The week will be full of further legal shenanigans in the key Android patent suits. Samsung is seeking to overturn the German injunction against its Galaxy Tab 10.1, and has filed yet another suit against Apple, in Australia. And Google has suffered a setback in its battle with Oracle over alleged infringements of Java IPR.

Samsung is stepping up its defences against Apple's legal onslaught. Last week it publicized a complaint it had filed in Paris, as though to remind its antagonist of just how huge an IPR arsenal it could deploy if really provoked. Now it has added the Australian suit, bringing the total actions between the two former allies to 21.

Its countersuit at the Federal Court of Australia alleges that the iPhone and iPad infringe seven patents related to wireless communications standards. Australia is an important theatre not because of its market volumes, but because it may be the first market in which an Apple-Samsung case comes to a definite conclusion, potentially influencing judges in the key battlegrounds of Europe and the US. Australia was the first country where Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 suffered a temporary injunction, with the vendor barred from selling or marketing its product until a final judgement in Apple's suits.

"Samsung has a proud history of innovation in the mobile industry," said the company in a statement. "It has invested continuously in R&D, design and technology to produce our innovative and cutting edge mobile devices." Samsung is one of the largest IPR holders in the world and at the 4G stage, has increased its share of patents deemed essential to wireless standards, because of its significant holdings in WiMAX and LTE. Apple will have to bear that in mind as it plans an LTE iPhone.

Samsung is also trying to invalidate and revoke Apple patents that have been asserted against its Galaxy family in Australia. It has also filed its appeal with the court in Dusseldorf, Germany which has been the chief battleground in Europe so far. It wants to reverse a September 9 ruling to impose a German national sales ban on the Galaxy Tab 10.1, which in turn upheld an earlier temporary injunction (though that had been pulled back from having EU-wide applicability to covering Germany only). Apple has also won an injunction in Germany against the new Galaxy Tab 7.7.

Across the pond, Oracle's claims against Android, if successful, could have significant knock-on effects for the whole ecosystem. Last week, Google suffered a setback when US District Judge William Alsup denied its motion for summary judgement on Oracle's copyright infringement claims. Oracle cites 12 code files and 37 specifications relating to software APIs, and says Android is based on an "unauthorized and incompatible Java implementation". Google had no right to use the files, argues Oracle (which acquired Java with Sun Microsystems) and it has made its version of Java incompatible with the standard, because it implements only a subset of APIs.

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