According of reports from the news sites of The Australian and TheNextWeb, Apple’s patent infringement lawsuits against Samsung in Australia expanded notably on Friday, from three claims to as many as 278 claims.

As per the reports, the lawsuit began with Apple initially claiming that one Samsung device - the Galaxy Tab 10.1 – had violated its patent. However, the suit has now grown substantially to involve 10 devices, all of which allegedly infringe on Apple patents.

Going by TheNextWeb report, the shocking expansion of the patent-infringement lawsuit has left South Korea-based Samsung totally bewildered; with a spokesman for the company stating that it was only in “days notice” that Samsung was told that Apple's Australian legal proceedings “had been amended to include over 200 claims against smartphones and tablets that haven't even launched in the country.”

The spokesman also told TheNextWeb that since the revelation had come at a fairly short notice, Samsung was in no position to file a defence against the expanded Apple claims before mid-May.

Meanwhile, though it is quite apparent that the expansion of Apple’s patent claims against Samsung has intensified the Australian legal scuffle between the two companies, Samsung has also filed its own patent-infringement lawsuits against Apple in the country; with the two tech bigwigs chiefly sparring over touchscreen technology, the look and feel of devices, and also how their respective products connect to the Internet.