Looks like the steady stream of legal news that we saw yesterday is continuing on into Saturday. According to a report out from Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, Apple has filed for a preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in a U.S. court, alleging that the Android 4.0-powered handset infringes on four patents. Three of the four patents were recently granted to Apple while the fourth is the same patent that the Cupertino firm used in the ITC's decision against HTC back in December. Mueller says that the three new patents relate to unified search and the method of using Siri to search the web, the slide-to-unlock feature, and an autocomplete feature that brings speed improvements while using a touchscreen to input text. The first and third patents on that list are the same ones included in the case between Apple and Samsung that we covered yesterday, so it seems that this attempt at getting an injunction against the Galaxy Nexus is related to that suit.

Mueller believes that Apple has targeted several Samsung-made devices in its latest case but that the Galaxy Nexus is mentioned specifically in this preliminary injunction filing because it's so new. It'll be interesting to see how the court decides to rule on Apple's request as it's going after a device that's running a stock version of Android, while previously we've seen manufacturer-customized versions of Google's OS in the iDevice company's crosshairs. As for when we can expect to hear more on the matter, Mueller expects that the court will issue a decision in the coming months. We'll keep an eye out for more information and pass along anything we find. Stay tuned.

Via MobileBurn, FOSS Patents