iPhone Lawsuit: iPhone touchscreen display patent

Posted by dennis on August 6th, 2007 at 10:44pm Comments

A new lawsuit was filed against Apple in relation to Apple iPhone, and this one looks much more serious than the previous one. In a nutshell, St. Petersburg, Florida based SP Technologies LLC claims that Apple infringed on a patent issued to it in 2004, and quite predictably wants “reasonable royalty” (source: Bloomberg).

US Patent #6784873 relating to “method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination,” alegedly covers iPhone’s exact touchscreen display/keyboard functionality, and was filed back in 2000 and granted in 2004.

While we’re no legal experts, we will keep our eyes open on this one, if it gets to court. More likely than not Apple will settle, like it did for the iPhone trademark with Cisco… if the allegations are serious.

More on the patent:
A method and medium for a computer readable input area. The input area is created by a computer program on a display capable of receiving touch-screen input. The computer on which the input area in used is at least a 32-bit system. The input area may contain a keyboard which is an image map. External programming may selectively access the input area through a dynamic link library. The input area has no task bar and may not be minimized, maximized, or deleted. Therefore, the input area becomes an integral component and provides the user with a constant and reliable method of inputting information into the computer program.

Related posts:

1. Apple settles iPhone touchscreen lawsuit
2. iPhone’s Touchscreen May Infringe on a Sony Ericsson Patent
3. Apple Facing New Cisco Lawsuit in UK
4. New Apple Patent Lawsuit over iPhone Technology
5. Touchscreen iPhone rival from RIM coming?

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Filed Under: Apple News+ News+ iPhone Lawsuits+ iPhone News

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