Wall Street Journal reports Apple has filed a patent lawsuit against Samsung in U.S. District Court in Northern California, alleging that the Galaxy line of smartphones and tablets infringe their patents and trademarks.

The lawsuit claims that Samsung has not only copied the hardware shape but also the user interface and packaging from the iPhone and iPad.

Wall Street Journal reports:

“Rather than innovate and develop its own technology and a unique Samsung style for its smart phone products and computer tablets, Samsung chose to copy Apple’s technology, user interface and innovative style in these infringing products,” the lawsuit said.

An Apple representative told All Things Digital:

“It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging.  This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.”

Apple is seeking injunctions, actual damages, punitive damages and a finding that the alleged infringement was willful.

The lawsuit shows side by side comparison photos of Apple’s patent diagrams and and Samsung’s products.

It also compares iPhone 3GS with Samsung’s Galaxy i9000 model to highlight the similarities.

Samsung had recently unveiled two new Honeycomb tablets at the CTIA 2011: the Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to compete with Apple’s iPad 2. Samsung is calling them the “world’s thinnest tablets” at just 8.6 millimeters, slightly thinner than iPad 2 at 8.8 millimeters.

It will be interesting to see how the lawsuit will affect Apple’s relationship with Samsung who is one of the main suppliers of A4 and A5 system-on-a-chip, LCD Displays, flash memory that is used in the iPhone, iPad and iPod product lines.

What do you think about Apple’s move to sue Samsung? Let us know in the comments section below.

[via WSJ, All Things Digital]