“An Illinois-based company and its Nevada partner have filed a lawsuit against Apple Inc., alleging that Mac OS X 10.4 ‘Tiger’ treads on an interface patent that affects the operating system’s nearly universal use of tabs,” Aidan Malley reports for AppleInsider.
“Little-known intellectual property agency IP Innovation LLC and its parent Technology Licensing Corporation this week became the latest to claim that Apple had abused a patent they hold,” Malley reports. “Filed April 18th in a US district court in Marshall, Texas — a town frequently recognized as the preferred home for lawsuits by companies that hoard property claims — the four-page formal complaint purports that Apple has engaged in ‘willful and deliberate’ infringement of a computer control patent by selling its current Tiger operating system.”
“IP Innovation is demanding a jury trial and asks for reparations for perceived damages which ‘exceed $20 million,’ according to the suit. It also seeks an injunction that would prevent the California-based defendant from infringing on the patent, essentially blocking Apple from continuing to sell its current edition of Mac OS X and any future editions that might draw on the supposed infringements,” Malley reports.
Malley reports, “The reported violation is an exceptionally specific one. It refers to a single US Patent Office filing originally made by Xerox researchers for a ‘User Interface with Multiple Workspaces for Sharing Display System Objects’ — and, in turn, a lone claim within that patent.”
More details in the full article here.
Do these guys own anything else that we might know about… lets start looking.
Also’
Xerox were also the ones that suied Palm for using their text input. At the time all Palm users had to learn to write all over again, to this day I will never buy a Xerox product. EVER.
Folks, welcome to the US judicial system–the laughing stock of the civilized world, at least when it comes to plaintiffs suing deep pocket corporations. Yep, we definitely need legal reform. Too bad the Dems in Congress are in the pocket of their major contributors–the plaintiffs bar–and stand ready to block reform.
So, Jake, the GOP had several years to do this much needed reform while controlling both The White House and Congress. What happened?
As soon as you use the word “Dems” any credibility you may have had goes down the toilet. It’s clear your info comes from Fox News or the like.
It’s “Democrats” as in The Democratic Party.
Now can we get back to talking about Macs?
I know a few other legal systems that are kinda’ laughable– largely because common men have an extremely difficult time ever getting to court. Our system may be imperfect because it’s misused, but it remains one that is surprisingly resilient and useful.
We all hate the legal system until we need it and it works in our favor.
$20 million? That’s chump change for a company with Apple’s revenues, and Apple can probably settle for half of that or less. Such a puny demand is a sign that the company is fishing for a quick settlement, even as they make a big show of “demanding a jury trial”. Expect Apple to play hardball and make this go away fast.
Jake,
So what you’re asking for is for legislators to pass laws, to clarify existing laws or prevent litigation via existing laws. Is that right?
If this is what you’re asking for then you have to take the next step and say that the existing system is flawed? Is this correct?
Far too many questions flow such a bald statement such as yours. Perhaps you need to clarify what you’re talking about before making mindless ideological assertions.
I don’t care if you’re talking about democrats, republicans, British conservatives, Australian greens or whatever. When you make an assertion such as yours, on a site like this you have one goal and one goal only and that’s to inflame.
You’re nothing but a troll unless you’ve got something to say about Macs then kindly leave the room and turn the light off when you leave.
I agree with tclash that this is not the place for politics, so who cares what you call them.
Why not spam the hell out of IP Innovation and there bogus, gee maybe they will pay us to go away tactics. Please Please lets have a jury trial so we can laugh these shit kickers out of the courtroom. Apple legal, drop the, who leaked which secret and do some real work. Get um boys and girls.
Just a Dem Dose Doody Thought.
I think Jake is referring to the legal system of every other country in the civilized world, where people can’t just sue anyone and anything for any reason.
And OJ and various other criminals are walking the street? What a peachy judicial system. It’s a good thing that you guys jailed that Martha Stewart when you did. Sheesh!
Lawyer lobbies = Dems
And Bush did push lawsuit reforms through… but even more needs to be done.
Jake is a big boy, he can fight for himself.
Civilized world? you mean Sweden don’t you? Those damn Sweeds have everything.
Blonds, Healthcare, Snow, No War, No Military, No Guts – oops did I say that?
Oh yeah and Fiords, lots and lots of them.
I wish I lived in Sweden, or do I?
Just a kinda glad to be an American thought. With all its faults it is still the
best damn country in the world….
Sorry guys. Got a little carried away with my douchey comment. I have been drinking the cool-aid for, oh, so long, my tiny brain is fried.
And since our judicial system is so out of wack, I will be catching the fist plane out to a more “civilized” country.
MDN Magic Word: Red
As in what I would be considered in the 50’s.
The fjords are mainly in Norway, not Sweden. With Google Earth, there’s no excuse now not to know your geography.
To Russia with Love Jake
They just shoot you there don’t they?
I once tried to find love with a Russian. Mega-Tons of baggage, not recommended.
I here Cuba and North Korea are great places to live, starve and then get shot. “Once you go red,
hide under your bed”.
Just a, the drink is called KOOL-AID thought.
throw some shit against the wall and see if it sticks.. while their at it they need to sure MS and every linux distro on the planet. just to be fair.
sounds like the “PC” folks cant take the heat
Seriously Thor what is the diff. Norway, Sweden they both have no guts but your right about the spelling of fjords and to all fjords out there I am sorry.
Just a, give me a f@cken break thought
Du peeple get tawt to spel ennymor? Jeez.
Super-homogenous societies always have it easier when it comes to enforcing their laws. When everyone’s the same, it stands to reason that there will be less and less crime, or dissent. Funny how Europe is going through much of the same issues that have been going on in the US for a long time– what to do when dominant forces in the culture are met with opposition or inertial change? Often, it seems, the proponents of acceptance and get-a-long-ship suddenly find themselves in the position of muscling their positions as best they can, thereby keeping the minorities they stand ‘so strongly’ for in their place. People have a vested interest to keep the status quo, especially when they’re not the ones suffering.
Pluralism is messy in many ways. Especially when people keep making the mistake of looking at each other as demographics, rather than human beings.
Night.
So let me get this straight, this company has never actually made anything BUT they own the rights to tabbed intefaces?
WTF!
The whole patent system is a joke.
The law should be that unless you actually make a product with the patent in then when a company comes along years later and actaully uses the patent in a physical product then that company should own the patent.
Fucking joke!
They want cash and Apple to cease violating the patent.
This means no more OS X or anything on Apple with a GUI-CLI here we come!
All of you above engaging in political/Country bashing are asshats.
Apple will go to court and then settle the case. Then everyone will forget IP Innovation LLC… even their investors.
Hay there. Jake gave what should be seen as a mea culpa. Enough said flamers, let’s get on with bashing somebody or something else. Sputnik where are you when we need you?
Look we live in a litigious society and everyone thinks they’re entitled to piece of everything that has money. So what else is new. Apple has their own lawyers and the whole matter will be settled out of court. All companies with bucketloads of money face situations like this it’s just a fact of doing business.
The alternative if for governments to pass legislation banning or severely proscribing such activities. The choice is specultive litigation or legislation. The choice is with you the voters!
I think some extra punctuation would’ve helped my last post. I guess I got the bit between my teeth and took off without doing enough editing.
I’m sure that this Illinois-based company IP Innovation LLC and its Nevada partner can do better than this…
Haven’t they the rights to keyboard input, or the alphabet?
Don’t they have a patent for the shape and size of an object such as the MacBook?
Or even a patent on icons?
What a farce this is becoming. The patent laws really do need an overhaul.