macnn/electronista

06/24/2008, 12:00am, EDT

Tuesday, June 24th

Apple named in Typhoon touch lawsuit

Apple on Monday, among nine others, was named in a lawsuit from Typhoon Touch Technologies targeted at Dell, regarding infringement on portable touch screen technology patents. In addition to Apple and Dell, the suit names Fujitsu, Toshiba, Lenovo, Panasonic, HTC, Palm, Samsung, Nokia, and LG, with Typhoon seeking compensation for lost profits, as well as an injunction against the companies barring production of the devices with the offending technologies.

The scale of the issue could be staggering, with Typhoon's legal representative Craig Weiner of Hofheimer, Gartlir & Gross LLP saying that the final figure of offending devices "could be [in the] millions".

The lawsuit comes after Typhoon settled out of court on similar issues with Motion Computing and Electrovaya, with the latter company recognized the infringement and offered at least 20-percent of its Scribbler Tablet PCs in the US.

Typhoon's lawsuit touches on two patents, 5,379,057 – "Touch Screen and Computer System Employing Same" – and 5,675,362, which is entitled "Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computing System Employing Same."


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Patent trolling?

6
06/24, 12:26am, EDT

Patent 5,675,362 is dated as of October 7, 1997 and patent 5,379,057 is dated as of January 3, 1995.

Apple released the Newton in 1993.

Am I missing something?

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jun 2005
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Yall

1
06/24, 1:55am, EDT

Y'all gotta know this must be one of those TX lawsuits wherein a shell company takes out a patent on some non patented aspect of an existing product and then waits till there is money an then strikes for a settlement. I'm all for patent protection and if this is legit, pay them a licensing fee, but if it's legal bottom feeders-fight em tooth and nail.

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2004
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Good reason to scrap...

1
06/24, 2:50am, EDT

patents and copyright.

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Oct 2001
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Of Counsel

1
06/24, 9:47am, EDT

If you go to the Hofheimer, etc., web site, you'll see that they're a NYC law firm. They do not list patent law as one of their specialties, and Craig Weiner (what a great name!) is listed as "Of Counsel", which means he's not even a full-time member of the staff.

What a crock!

Huh?

1
06/24, 11:35am, EDT

The lawsuit comes after Typhoon settled out of court on similar issues with Motion Computing and Electrovaya, with the latter company recognized the infringement and offered at least 20-percent of its Scribbler Tablet PCs in the US.

Could you re-write this paragraph so it makes sense?

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Joined Jun 2006
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Huh?

-1
06/24, 11:35am, EDT

The lawsuit comes after Typhoon settled out of court on similar issues with Motion Computing and Electrovaya, with the latter company recognized the infringement and offered at least 20-percent of its Scribbler Tablet PCs in the US.

Could you re-write this paragraph so it makes sense?

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jun 2006
User is offline

I'd say bottom feeders

1
06/24, 12:09pm, EDT

considering the lack of any real attempts to protect in light of the many companies with viable products claimed to be infringing.

They appear to be waiting for other companies to make lots of money off the products before filing. That's not protecting, that's a business model.

Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined Jan 2007
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