Well, well, well look what we have here, another company trying its luck to get some of that Apple money. A Pennsylvania company named FlatWorld has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against the Cupertino-based technology giant in a San Francisco courthouse. The company is suing Apple for its entire lineup of touch related products, which is a similar position a Texas company recently took.
The patent in question states that the inventor “developed a testing tool with a touch screen programmed to allow children directly manipulate or move objects on the screen, and ‘hide’ them behind other objects.”
Moreover, FlatWorld alleges that Apple has infringed Patent RE43,318. The products noted as infringing this patent includes the iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, iPad Nano (sixth generation), MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Magic Mouse in combination with any Mac computer running OSX Snow Leopard v10.6.1 or later, Magic Trackpad in combination with any Mac computer running OS X Snow Leopard v.10.6.4 or later.
It’s hard to really filter out how this relates to anything Apple sells, but to a company like FlatWorld it doesn’t really matter. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: “ … The system is so flawed, companies can snatch up patents in trying to extort a few million dollars away from mega tech companies like Apple.” Nothing will change until the government does something about this.
[via patentlyapple]