Thursday morning, Samsung responded to the attempt by Apple to ban import sales of the Galaxy S III into the United States. As reported by Jeff on Wednesday, Apple is citing two patents that they own in an attempt to squash competitive practices in the name of protecting intellectual property. From the statement released, it appears Samsung is not phased by Apple's attempt and is ready to fight.

Samsung stated they will vigorously oppose Apple's request for a court to ban sales of their latest featured smart phone and is continuing to plan for their June 21st release date. They further stated that they will "Demonstrate to the court that the Galaxy S III is innovative and distinctive". The plan by Samsung is clearly to get this phone out and in deep circulation before Apple releases their next iPhone. Many have speculated that the next iPhone could be on sale as early as July. With the release, by month's end, the Galaxy S III will be available on over 300 carriers worldwide and stands to threaten Apple's global market share.

This legal wrangling between Samsung and Apple is not the first and is sure to continue. The questions at this point is how successful this latest campaign by Apple will be to embargo competitive products? This move is similar to the ITC hold that was placed on many HTC One devices in May. How will this affect the public perception of Apple going forward? Are they afraid of competition? Are they being anti competitive? Are they unable to innovate? Is the Galaxy S III a rip off of the Apple iPhone in any way?