Apple Sues Motorola Over Multitouch Patents
Apple has filed suit against Motorola over alleged multitouch and UI patent infringements.
You might remember when, early last month, Motorola filed several lawsuits against Apple alleging infringement of 18 patents. Specifically, Motorola filed a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC) alleging that Apple’s iPhone, iPad, iTouch and certain Mac computers infringe Motorola-owned patents. The company also filed patent infringement complaints against Apple in the Northern District of Illinois and the Southern District of Florida. A little over a week later, Motorola requested that several of Apple's multitouch patents be invalidated.
Now Apple has fired back, filing two patent infringement lawsuits against Motorola in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin. Apple highlights six patents in total in the two suits and seems to only be targeting Android phones. ZDNet reports that the Droid, Droid 2, Droid X, Cliq, Cliq XT, BackFlip, Devour A555, Devour i1 and Charm are all named in the suit. Apple wants a jury to prevent Moto from continuing to use the technology in its devices and is also seeking treble damages plus its legal fees.
One of the patents (patent number 7,497,949 for 'touchscreen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics') also appears in Apple's monster lawsuit against HTC. ZDNet reports that five out of the six patents are related to multitouch technology. The last remaining patent relates to an 'object-oriented system locator system'.
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No need to worry about Apple or Motorola in these battles. The lawyers will win and the customers will pay for any settlements. The companies and their shareholders will be largely unaffected.
" 'touchscreen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics' "
Htf can one patent a basic idea?! If it was the technology behind multitouch, that at least is understandable... What next? the keyboard?!
In the mobile phone industry patents are going to strangle innovation. A major overhaul of the system is necessary asap.
In the mobile phone industry patents are going to strangle innovation. A major overhaul of the system is necessary asap.
Agreed. The patent system is cr@p. I would be very inclined to vote for a Senator/president who wishes to fix this mess than one who won't.
so i guess apple is trying to sue moto so they have money to pay off proview who is suing apple. its a viscous cycle!!!
I wish patents were more specific. This patent basically says that every touchscreen device available is subject to lawsuit from apple. Apple is monopolizing the market with all these stupid patents, and THAT is ilegal. Really how the heck can you file 6 multitouch patents. I really hope congress does something with this stupid patent system.
I hate apple so much
I wanna patent breating..
Proview suing apple, whos suing motorola whos suing HTC, who's suing RIM, who's suing Google, who's not suing anybody...
Its like a man train circle jerk of patent suing.
The American patent system is broken.
I work in the Point of Sale business and I have been working on touchscreens since 1998. How in the hell does apple own the rights to something that was invented by someone else?
I don't blame apple for retaliating, It's just that I don't get how they think they own the rights to touchscreens.
I patent mobile processors at default configuration at 1 Ghz or higher. I now hereby sue Apple's A4 processor for being clocked at 1 Ghz.
In a world where companies invent patents and not actual technology, lawsuits are big business. In fact, they are fast becoming the only business.
*sigh...
I should go patent " Tracea constriction that allows air to fills cellulites in the body" then patent "the ability to institute a process in law against another person, item, or thing, in any way, type, or form" That way when people breathe i can sue them for infringing and when they counter sue I can sue them for suing me cause I own the patent for suing
Proview suing apple, whos suing motorola whos suing HTC, who's suing RIM, who's suing Google, who's not suing anybody...Its like a man train circle jerk of patent suing.
The smarter side concedes, notice the last one? Google is busy enriching us with new technologies and stuff for the people while the others are busy sue-ing they're asses off.
its a viscous cycle!!!
So it's a very thick liquid?
Like syrup?
These lawsuits are so stupid. Ironically enough Motorola fired the first shot in this battle with a ridiculous lawsuit of their own. This lawsuit from Apple is merely Apple firing back. So stupid. It's a great time to be a lawyer though I suppose. With how pathetically sue-happy Americans are it can't possibly be that difficult to find good work.
Standard procedure to gain access to the patents of the opposing party.
However, I was always amazed how quiet Apple remained so far when Android phones used virtually the same multi-touch interface as in the iPhone. Not sure who actually invented multi-touch and gestures, but I would guess it wasn't Motorola.)
I work in the Point of Sale business and I have been working on touchscreens since 1998. How in the hell does apple own the rights to something that was invented by someone else?I don't blame apple for retaliating, It's just that I don't get how they think they own the rights to touchscreens.
Touch screens from the old days function in a completely different way and as I recall single input points were limitations of the resistive foil over screens. The one in question is capacitive allowing to recognize multiple inputs etc.. So it's not the touch screen in itself but how it works.
Touch screens from the old days function in a completely different way and as I recall single input points were limitations of the resistive foil over screens. The one in question is capacitive allowing to recognize multiple inputs etc.. So it's not the touch screen in itself but how it works.
If the patent were about capacitive multi-touch etc in terms of how the technology worked then that would seem fine - the problem seems that everyone is suing over the idea of using multi-touch to do things. The equivalents of say "let's put 'paste' in the edit menu" or "'Ctrl C' might be a handy shortcut for copying" are equally absurd.
Shouldn't gestures / control layouts etc be design matters rather than inventions? That'd mean going for some sort of design registration rather than a patent, in my view.
GUYS! Please relax about the broad scope / evil / all encompassing patents critics.
What the article reports is the TITLE of the patent and NOT the CLAIMS of the patent; it is the claims that define the invention protected. The claims are specially numbered paragraphs at the end of the patent. Unless one reads the claims, one cannot understand what invention is being protected.
GUYS! Please relax about the broad scope / evil / all encompassing patents critics. What the article reports is the TITLE of the patent and NOT the CLAIMS of the patent; it is the claims that define the invention protected. The claims are specially numbered paragraphs at the end of the patent. Unless one reads the claims, one cannot understand what invention is being protected.
+1000 for understanding.
All those who decry the broadness of patent claims have obviously never seen one.
Imagine a patent is like a book, the wording of "patent number 7,497,949 for 'touchscreen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics" is basically the title of the book, before being followed by a few hundred pages of technical information & diagrams.
So for all those who say stupid things like "i'll patent DNA then sue every human born", sure, go right ahead, as long as you attach the several million pages of scientific research detailing the entire Human Genome Mapping Project, being careful of course not to copy or plagiarise existing published work on the same subject for the last 50 years.
Idiots.
I'm patenting the human race and will call all current living people to pay back royalties. Shoot! Apple did that already!!!!
I'm patenting the human race and will call all current living people to pay back royalties. Shoot! Apple did that already!!!!
Wow, not even funny, even after the above explaination - please remove yourself from the gene pool
+1000 for understanding.All those who decry the broadness of patent claims have obviously never seen one.Imagine a patent is like a book, the wording of "patent number 7,497,949 for 'touchscreen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics" is basically the title of the book, before being followed by a few hundred pages of technical information & diagrams.So for all those who say stupid things like "i'll patent DNA then sue every human born", sure, go right ahead, as long as you attach the several million pages of scientific research detailing the entire Human Genome Mapping Project, being careful of course not to copy or plagiarise existing published work on the same subject for the last 50 years.Idiots.
Your obvious knowledge of how patent laws work has brought much to this discussion. You have enriched our lives further by fully explaining how patent laws work, and we, Tom's readers, thank you from the bottom of our ignorant, uneducated hearts.
What you have failed to do is acknowledge how idiotic the US patent system is, and how complacency of the US legal system makes the never-ending circle of litigation possible.
Everyone's an expert on the internetz.
Apple holds the multi-touch patents, not touchscreen patents. This is the ability to use more than one finger (or other appropriate body part) to be able to build multiple gestures that translate into several functions. For instance, putting two fingers pinched together at the center of the screen and then spreading them apart will cause the screen to zoom in, while bringing them back together again will cause the screen to zoom out.
Apple acquired the patents when they bought the company Fingerworks back in 2005 (founded with patents in 1998) and has been applying the technology not just to their iOS devices, but specifically to their laptops, where you use multi-touch on the trackpad to scroll (both horizontal and vertical), right-click or double-click. Both of the Fingerworks developers (Wayne Westerman and John Elias) continue to work for Apple, refining the technology and, most importantly, filing for new patents for technology they are creating at Apple.
IANAL, but this is most likely a move on the part of Motorola to force Apple to cross-file the multi-touch patents so Motorola can avoid having to pay licensing fees. Motorola's motion to invalidate the multi-touch patents will most likely fail, as the technology predates Apple's involvement, and there really is no prior art to multi-touch or gestures, just touchscreen, which is primitive in comparison. The patents are a huge asset and could prove to be a cash-cow fro Apple.
Oh oh.. but Google is suing the US Government...
I think all these companies should just give 200 million to each other and be done with this court nonsense. Not a week goes by anymore where A's suing B who's suing C who's suing A. With the patent office remaining patently broken and granting patents on all kinds of obvious ideas, or ones that have been used in prior art for years, this nonsense will just keep continuing. On the plus side, patent lawyers in texas are doing well.
Thanks Houndsteeth for the info regarding how Apple acquired the IP portfolio. Very interesting.
I'm patenting the human race and will call all current living people to pay back royalties. Shoot! Apple did that already!!!!
lmao i thaught it was hilarious, he did it to spite you. childish but hilarious kinda like pinapple express