Plaintiff lays claim to basic interface command

Adobe, Apple, HTC and several other corporations are being sued over a basic interface command, court documents show. The plaintiff, Hopewell Culture and Design, accuses other firms of violating a patent titled Double-Clicking a Point-and-Click User Interface Apparatus to Enable a New Interaction with Content represented by an Active Visual Display Element. While seemingly covering a fundamental, long-used interface trope, the patent -- first filed for by Actify in 2002 -- suggests that double-clicking had previously "not been used to effect user input to a Web browser that uniquely corresponds to the double-click input."

Adobe is said to be in violation of because of its Reader PDF software, while Apple is targeted more broadly for the iPhone and iPad. Still more HTC products are listed, namely the Hero, Evo, Droid Eris and Droid Incredible. Nokia is known to be involved as a result of several products including the N97 and N900.

The remaining defendants named in the lawsuit are LG, Motorola, Opera, Palm, Quickoffice and Samsung. As compensation, Hopewell is seeking "adequate" damage payments from the various parties. The case is being handled through the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, which is infamous for favoring plaintiffs in patent disputes.

By Electronista Staff

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