A Florida-based company has accused Apple of infringing a patent
it owns for a readable keyboard display, similar to the iPhone's
touch-screen. SP Technologies filed a claim alleging that Apple has
infringed on a patent it was granted in 2004 for a "method and
medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user
termination".
By James Sherwood for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
The suit was filed at a federal court in Tyler, Texas, which
last week witnessed a patent infringement
filing over Sony's Cell CPU, and which is often seen as
sympathetic to claimants in patent infringement cases.
SP Technologies is seeking "reasonable royalties" from Apple,
which online rumours have speculated could see compensation paid
for each iPhone already sold. The claimant is also seeking a
permanent injunction against Apple's use of the patent in its
hardware.
If found guilty of wilful and deliberate infringement, Apple
could be forced to pay punitive damages equal to three times the
economic loss suffered by SP Technologies as a result.
Apple, which was unavailable for comment, is no stranger to such
allegations. The company has already been sued
by Cisco over the use of the name iPhone, and was last month
sued
by Eminem's music publisher in a multi-million-dollar lawsuit
surrounding downloads of the rapper's songs via iTunes.
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2007
