The iPhone’s Riddled Lawsuits
02.20.07 - 03:53pm
The iPhone is already riddled with lawsuits alleging patent infringement (and still not on the market) and now one more is on the verge of being to be added to the list. It is with Quantum Research, a company that filed a lawsuit against Apple in 2005 regarding patent violations concerning sensor technology in the iPod click wheel device. Quantum Research says it is prepared to file another one regarding the iPhone’s touch screen technology, should it infringe on their technology as it appears to from descriptions.
“We will be looking very carefully at the iPhone,†was the warning that Quantum Research gave in an interview with electronicsweekly.com. “The description of the iPhone suggests it uses a rear-surface touch screen, and has proximity sensing which can tell if it is held to the ear. That’s a QR capability,†said Duncan Bryan, licensing director at Quantum Research. If it is using charge transfer capacitive sensing, if would infringe on the technology that was patented and invented by QR’s founder and CEO Hal Philip.
Formerly the iPhone name has been accused of trademark infringement, which Cisco has the rights to and is currently in court negotiations. Cisco obtained the iPhone trademark when it purchased InfoGear in 2000 who had been granted the trademark in 1996 - well before the iPod. They were in talks for Apple to use the name, but after Steve Jobs promptly announced “We are calling it iPhone†before signing any agreement, Cisco sued. Jobs called the lawsuit “silly†- (silly? was this because Apple, with the bigger hype for the name had already won in the publics eye - in business if you win in the market the court seems to be simply paperwork.)
Then the issue of the seemingly “revolutionary†iPhone design came up - a design which was incredibly similar to the design LDG won an award for in September and which the iPhone seems so remarkably close to that you can only tell them apart by the white outline of the iphone and the icons. Woo-Young Kwak, the head of LG Mobile said at a press conference in Spain “We consider that Apple copycat the Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006.†Broken English it is but the accusation seems pretty plain. Speculation is that Apple saw pictures of LG’s phone roaming the net as they were fairly open with sharing photos and concept drawings. Many think this is why Apple announced the iPhone before it was ready since they new if they announced it after LG, they would be seen as the copycat.
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