Daring Fireball‘s John Gruber discovered  today   (via  Jeremy Philippe) that Samsung (the non-copycats) had been using a maps interface that  was an “ever-so-slightly modified rip-off” of the Maps application on Apple’s iPhone for a promotional image of the Galaxy Player 50 on its website. Quickly, it was revealed that  interface shown on the device is actually an exact copy of an iPhone screenshot from a  blog post  by Laura Scott on  BlogHer  in 2008 (stay classy, Samsung). Samsung’s Galaxy Player is supposed to be a response to Apple’s  successful iPod touch.

Currently, Apple and Samsung are in a patent battle. A month ago, it was  reported  that  Steve Jobs was said to have contacted Samsung in July of 2010, initiating negotiations between the two companies regarding the patent disputes. The effort proved to be unsuccessful, which caused Apple to file mutiple patent lawsuits against Samsung.

The reason for the borrowed image is not clear, but a lack of placeholder image is believed to be the cause. Whatever the reason maybe, this is ludicrous because  Apple is currently accusing Samsung of copying the design of its iPhone and iPad on its own products. It doesn’t help Samsung in anyway that’s for sure!

Apple is seeking an injunction against Samsung preventing the sale of the Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia.  Samsung  agreed  to delay the device’s launch several times as the injunction was considered by the court.  The company even proposed a deal to Apple that would allow Samsung to launch its delayed Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia. Unsurprisingly, Apple  rejected  that offer from Samsung.

It was  reported  that Apple had presented sufficient evidence of alleged infringement by Samsung on two of its touchscreen and multitouch related patents to issue a preliminary injunction on the Galaxy Tab 10.1. For laughs,  Reuters  revealed  that asked by a judge in a California courtroom to tell the difference between a  Samsung Galaxy  Tab and an Apple  iPad  held side-by-side 10 feet away, an attorney for Samsung couldn’t do it (*chuckles*). In addition, yesterday, it was  reported  that Apple had told Samsung that  it owns a thicket of patents,but it will only license lower level patentsto competing companies.

But wait! It doesn’t stop there. Today, it was reported that Samsung had filed preliminary injunctions in the Tokyo District Court and in the New South Wales Registry in an effort to stop sales of the newly launched iPhone 4S.    Samsung has also included the  iPhone 4  and the  iPad  2.

It seems that these lawsuits have more twists than daily soap operas.