You’d think that since Samsung supplies the chips and screens used by Apple, these two would get along.  But no, last week, Apple filed a follow-up lawsuit against Samsung in South Korea regarding the product-copying violations made by the latter.   Samsung retaliates with pending lawsuits in six countries against Apple (the U.S., South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), which also serves as a counter-lawsuit for the one that Apple filed against Samsung that may inhibit Samsung from selling smartphones and tablet PCs in the U.S.

“Apple has copied many of Samsung’s innovations in its Apple iPhone, iPod and iPad products,” lawyers for the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a lawsuit filed yesterday in federal court in Delaware.

“To have lawsuits in many countries at the start, it’s the best way to protect their patents,” Jong Sang-jo, a law professor at Seoul National University, said of Samsung’s tactics.

Here’s a recap of some of Apple’s warfare against, well, everyone:

• Apple VS. Amazon – Amazon was sued for using AppStore which Apple said was an infringement to their own App Store.
• iCloud VS. Apple – ironically, Apple was sued for using iCloud as a name for their new app.
• Kodak VS. Apple – Kodak sued Apple as well as Samsung and LG for the software used in their camera phones.  Kodak won.
• Apple VS. Sony – though this is not a lawsuit, it’s worth mentioning.  Apple blocked Sony’s e-book app because the app directs user to another webpage to purchase items.  Apple released new rules pertaining to purchases made outside iTunes.
• Nokia VS. Apple – Nokia filed 46 patent lawsuits against Apple regarding design and features of mobile phones.

Though Apple is leading in smartphone sales due to aesthetics among other things (admit it or not, people are influenced by the brand when making a purchase), other companies are coming up with better smartphones that have all the features you need integrated into one device that’s cheaper and lighter.

With Apple attempting to take over the personal device and its associated cloud structure, you can bet that these lawsuits are just the tip of the iceberg.  If Apple keeps this up, more companies will be filing lawsuits against them, just as we saw with the iCloud suit.  There are only a finite number of possible things you can do without copying someone else’s work.

On a related note, various mobile phone companies like Motorola and HTC have been sued because of their use of the Android platform.  Oracle’s hitting even closer to home, with demands for Android advertising revenue.