San Francisco, April 19 (IANS) Apple Inc. has sued Samsung Electronics Co. over patent infringement in a latest suit, Xinhua reported Monday.

The suit, filed last Friday in US District Court in California, alleged that Samsung's smartphones, such as "Glaxy S 4G" and "Nexus S", and the Galaxy line of tablet computers violated Apple's patent and trademark, according to All Things Digital, a technology and startup company news site.

"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," the report quoted an Apple representative as saying.

Intellectual property suits can be often seen among mobile computing rivals, including suits between Microsoft and Motorola, a suit by Oracle against Google, and Apple's patent dispute with Nokia and HTC.

Although Samsung supplies chips for a number of Apple products, Apple CEO Steve Jobs once openly mocked Samsung and other tablet makers as "copycats" during the iPad2 launch. Last month, Apple reportedly entered into a partnership with China's Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. to make iPad chips.