“Previously unknown firm Touchscreen Gestures has sued Apple, HTC, RIM, and Samsung [in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Texas Tyler Division] this week for allegedly violating four patents for some of the simplest elements of touchscreen input,” Electronista reports.
“iOS devices, newer BlackBerrys, and Android devices allegedly copy methods for single taps, double taps, dragging, and scrolling,” Electronista reports. “The patents had been transferred at some point from notebook trackpad developer Sentelic, although whether they were bought or handed over with hopes of a payout aren’t clear.”
Read more in the full article here.
Jeff John Roberts reports for paidContent, “CNET last year spoke poorly of the firm in reviewing a laptop: ‘The touch pad is equally terrible, which is to be expected: it’s a Sentelic. Erratic behaviour and terrible software is the hallmark of a Sentelic pad.'”
“It’s unclear how the patents made their way from Sentelic to the Texas court room,” Roberts reports. “The most likely explanation is that they were purchased by one of a growing number of professional ‘patent trolls’ — firms that don’t make anything but amass patents in order to make a business of suing deep-pocketed companies like Apple.”
Roberts reports, “The trolls typically pick a plaintiff-friendly jurisdiction like East Texas where rural juries have frequently issued verdicts in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Trolltastic.