JUST DAYS AFTER APPLE filed a lawsuit against its rival Samsung over alleged patent infringement, Samsung has returned the favour, and is now suing Apple for patent infringement.

Last Friday, Apple filed a lawsuit to a Californian court, alleging that the design of Samsung’s Galaxy smartphones and tablets infringe on its registered designs for the iPhone and iPad.

Now, Samsung has filed a similar complaint against Apple to courts in Tokyo and Germany.

Business professor Chang Sea Jin at the National University of Singapore told Bloomberg that the lawsuits are “strictly business”: “Apple is trying to annoy Samsung – they’re throwing a ball at Samsung to keep them in check”. He said that the typical way to deal with such cases is to counter-sue.

Chang added that Apple’s reliance on Samsung is unlikely to be affected by the row.

A report published in PCWorld last summer claims that the rival products use exactly the same processing chips.

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