After three weeks defending US$2m infringement claims laid by Apple, Samsung has hit back with its own patent infringement claim, accusing Apple’s FaceTime of infringing on its video call patent. Specifically, Samsung claims that the FaceTime app infringes on a patent for compressing videos before they are sent over mobile phone networks.

Samsung acquired the video-compression patent, which was described by academic Professor Dan Schonfeld as ‘revolutionary’, in 2011 from its inventors for US$2.2m. They themselves were awarded the patent in 1994, which is probably why lawyers for Apple counter that the technology described in the patent was in fact obsolete.

Now, obviously, we don’t know who’s been infringing whom – or even if there has been any infringement – but the whole thing is damn entertaining. These guys look set to be battling each other for the duration of this century. We can’t wait for the film… Patents pending…