MONKEYmedia sues Apple for patent infringement

MONKEYmedia today filed a lawsuit against Apple, Inc. for infringing claims in three of MONKEYmedia’s Seamless Contraction patents. Apple’s infringement involves its user interfaces for document summarization, RSS readers and video players that can display multiple versions of text and/or audiovisual content. The lawsuit was filed in the Western District of Texas – Austin Division.

“We can sit by and watch Apple continue to use our patented inventions without paying, or we can do something about it,” said Eric Gould Bear, MONKEYmedia’s CEO, in the press release.

Austin-based MONKEYmedia is a privately held user interface design studio turned intellectual property licensing boutique, founded in 1994 by Janna Buckmaster Bear and Eric Gould Bear, a Microsoft and Yahoo! alumnus, respectively.

Source: MONKEYmedia, Inc.

MacDailyNews Take: Licensing squeeze.

And Steve Jobs ought to sue wiseass Eric Gould Bear for plagiarism:

We can sit by and watch competitors steal our patented inventions, or we can do something about it. – Steve Jobs, March 2, 2010