Samsung Asks Apple to Stop Selling Products in the U.S.; Apple Shares Drop by 4 Percent

Every week, makes news with technology developments, business deals and, more often than not, controversies.

That’s where our weekly "Core Bytes" column on Apple comes in. We’ll relay the past week’s news highlights from our favorite backyard tech giant.

Controversies
•On Thursday, South Korean based Samsung filed a report with International Trade Commission asking that that Apple stop selling its products in the U.S. This is it’s boldest international lawsuit against the big Apple, adding to a list of legal moves against it in California, South Korea, Japan, Germany, Italy and the U.K.

•Kodak had its big moment when it won an International Trade Commission patent ruling against Apple and Research in Motion today. The suit, filed in January 2010, successfully claimed that Apple and RIM’s phones infringed on the term, “at least three different colors”, and that some phones also copy the term “initiating capture.”

New Products
•iPad, meet your next latest competitor: Today Hewlett-Packard is , wooing googly-eyed tech reviewers. Some, like Jason Hiner of Tech Republic, boasted that the device is "the iPad's stiffest competition yet for individual business professionals.” Hiner said the product is a step above iPad in its email capabilities, full web experience and interaction between tablet and smartphone.

Business Deals and Developments
•Apple’s shares have dropped by 4 percent, the worst first-half performance in three years. The shares are down from the record $363.1 on February 16. The slowdown, say analysts, can be attributed to competition from Google—a growing player in the smartphone market—and investors waiting on new products.

•Apple spent $560,000 to lobby the federal government on issues such as green technology, technology spending for education, and electronic waste, according to a quarterly disclosure report. Who were the recipients of Apple’s environmental and educational spiels? The House, Senate, and EPA, as well as the Department of Education, Federal Communications Commission and other federal agencies during the first three months of the year.

•Apple’s smallest but oldest Manhattan store has outgrown its space. The SoHo store, flocked to by thousands of visitors everyday, will be expanding into the ground floor space of a U.S. Postal Service parcel that has been vacant since 2009. It will be relocating to an undisclosed location.