Apple Sued Over Multitouch, Could Palm Be Next? 12
Multitouch has been brought into the legal spotlight yet again. This time however, Apple is the one who's getting sued. Yep, in an ironic twist of fate, Elan Microelectronics is suing Apple for violating two of its touchscreen patents, after failing to reach a licensing agreement with them after 2 years of negotiations.
Elan Microelectronics, a Taiwan-based company, is probably best known for producing the touchpads for a few of the Eee PC models. Back in 2006 they sued and won a preliminary injunction against Synaptics for one of the patents they're now suing Apple about. Synaptics countersued and just last year a cross-licensing deal was put in place.
According to The Wall Street Journal (via Engadget) Elan is going so far as seeking an injunction against Apple to "prevent it from selling the MacBook, iPhone, and iPod Touch until everything gets legally sorted."
What does that mean for Palm? Well, that all depends. If the injunction is successful (unlikely) it could work in Palm's favor. As long as Elan doesn't come after Palm next, that is. Only time will tell.
Thanks to reidme for tipping the NYTimes article on the forums
12 Comments
Nah Palm is safe, remember, the Palm Pre is using a 'TYPE' of multi-touch, not THEE multi-touch in question. The technology is different. If my memory serves me correctly, the Pre's multi-touch was designed by a company which had developed their 'TYPE' of multi-touch back in the, 80's?
LOL, what are you babbling about? Palm wasn't sued yet because it can't be because it doesn't have a product on the market. If Apple loses Palm will lose. Fortunately for Palm Apple will bear the costs of the suit first.
About time someone put Apple in their place. Of course, this can mean trouble for Palm, but I doubt that, if it comes to that Palm and Elan will come to some sort of agreement. Apple is being sued because they're stubborn and think they are almighty and no one would even think about coming after them. Well, wake up Apple and smell the coffee.
I'm pretty sure Palm is safe. I think they worked with Synaptics for their touch tech, and Synaptics has an arrangement with Elan.
Nope, Synaptics has no right to transfer any licensing.
Not having looked at the technical aspect of the case, Palm won't get sued - they have no money (yet!) - they'll be doing well to have sufficient cash flow to have a successful launch of the Pre. Maybe next year if a lawsuit against Apple is successful, Palm has a successful launch with Pre (remember Pre isn't even on the market yet - what damages can be claimed right now?) and there is any chance of a claim against Palm based on technical matters (an actual infringement - depends on the nature of the patent and Palm's implementation).
Apple, on the other hand, is sitting on 27 billion dollars cash and has sold countless products - so, disregarding the technical merit of the case, they're a potential target even if it is a possible long-shot.
Actually the Pre uses technology developed by Cypress Semiconducter, Their patents are pending. I haven't read the patent in question so I can't comment on it.
(I'm a lawyer, but I know next to nothing about IP law.)
Isn't there an exception in patent law for functional necessity? In other words, there's probably no functional alternative to multi-touch for devices of the type and size of the iPhone and the Pre. Given that public policy supports continued innovation, shouldn't patent law have an exception for when there's no functional equivalent possible?
(A similar doctrine exists in trademark law, as I hazily recall for my law school seminar days.)
It's very stupid that you can patent gestures!!
You can't patent gestures, but you can patent a devices ability to use them as input -- that is not stupid
Anyone notice how we haven't seen the pinch gesture shown on the demo vids in a while? It's like they are avoiding showing a zoom in/out pinch on these since all the law suit noise rumblings started.
What if they pull that feature before launch?? OMG that would suck.
Honestly, for me, the pinch to zoom feature bears no weight on my decision. I do own one of the Devil's products (2nd Gen. Touch) and find my self barely, if ever, using it.