On January $4,2007,4$ days before the iPhone was introduced to the world, Apple filed a suit of $4$ design patents covering the basic shape of the iPhone. These were followed up in June of that year with a massive filing of a color design patent covering $193$ screenshots of various iPhone graphical user interfaces. It is from these filings along with Apple's utility patents, registered trademarks and trade dress rights, that Apple selected the particular intellectual property to enforce against Samsung. Apple sued its component supplier Samsung, alleging in a $38-$page federal complaint on April $15,2011$ in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California that several of Samsung's Android phones and tablets, including the Nexus S$,$ Epic $4$G$,$ Galaxy S $4$G$,$ and the Samsung Galaxy Tab, infringed on Apple's intellectual property: its patents, trademarks, user interface and style. Apple's complaint included specific federal claims for patent infringement, false designation of origin, unfair competition, and trademark infringement, as well as state$-$level claims for unfair competition, common law trademark infringement, and unjust enrichment.

Apple's evidence submitted to the court included side$-$by$-$side image comparisons of iPhone $3$GS and i$9000$ Galaxy S to illustrate the alleged similarities in packaging and icons for apps. However, the images were later found to have been tampered with in order to make the dimensions and features of the two different products seem more similar, and counsel for Samsung accused Apple of submitting misleading evidence to the court.

Samsung counter$-$sued Apple on April $22,2011,$ filing federal complaints in courts in Seoul, South Korea; Tokyo, Japan; and Mannheim, Germany, alleging Apple infringed Samsung's patents for mobile$-$communications technologies. By summer, Samsung also filed suits against Apple in the British High Court of Justice, in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, and with the United States International Trade Commission $($ITC$)$ in Washington D$.$C$.,$ all in June $2011.$