We’ve already seen iPhone related lawsuits cropping up from legitimate patent holders as well as frivolous settlement-hunters. And, with the iPhone 3G set to go live on July 11, we’re seeing another round of iPhone lawsuits start to surface.
Typhoon Touch Technologies has just named Apple, in their multi-defendant lawsuit, for violating two patents regarding a touchscreen device. The patents in question were issued in 1995 and 1997, and reference technologies like Floppy drives and SCSI drives – neither of which are used today. The patents were issued for a touchscreen device that would allow in-the-field workers to gather information. But, that didn’t stop Typhoon from going after touchscreen devices like the Dell Latitude XT tablet PC, HTC Touch, Lenovo’s ThinkPad X-series notebooks, Nokia’s N810 Internet Tablet and Palm’s Treo lineup.
Apple is now being dragged in to the muck with Fujitsu, HTC, Lenovo, LG, Nokia, Panasonic, Palm, Samsung, and Toshiba. This newest group of defendants will join Dell in the fight against Typhoon’s lawsuit.
“The addition of these defendants is a further step in protecting Typhoon’s IP from being unfairly exploited,” said Craig Weiner, Director of Legal Affairs and Licensing for Typhoon. “Hopefully, the world of potential infringers will take notice that it is the company’s intent to aggressively protect its intellectual property.”
Typhoon is seeking to have an injunction levied against offending devices and financial damages until they can reach a royalty agreement – ideally, Typhoon is seeking a “reasonable” royalty payment from the above-named companies every three months.
If the injunction goes through, Apple could have a serious problem for its about-to-launch iPhone 3G. That is, if it goes through. We’ll be keeping a close eye on these happenings, stay tuned.
[Via: MacObserver]