A patent filed on July 6, 1999 is threatening to create trouble for companies like Apple and Microsoft's touchpad products like iPod and Zune
A patent filed on July 6, 1999 is threatening to create trouble for companies like Apple and Microsoft's touchpad products like iPod and Zune
I know some very nice lawyers, but there is this joke on lawyers that I must tell you.
A lawyer married a divorcee, who told him that she was still a virgin. When the shocked lawyer asked her how this was possible, she told him, "Well, he was a software engineer and every night he would talk about how great it would all be and then fall asleep."
She continued, "And that is why I married you because everybody knows that a lawyer always screws you."
Patent woes
Jokes apart, what is happening now is really serious business. On July 6, 1999, US patent no 6,639,584 was filed by inventor Chuang Li, which governed "A portable electronic device comprising: a housing; and a touch-sensitive surface mounted on the housing, the portable electronic device controlled by a user tracing a command pattern on the touch-sensitive surface with a finger..."
The patent itself is written in techno-legal jargon that will not interest lay people like us, but even a casual perusal of the quoted text above will convince us about the fact that devices like the iPod are easily covered under such a patent.
What next?
Patent issues are always tricky because they are designed to protect the inventor by enabling him to exclude others. In fact, Wikipedia's entry on patents actually says that, "A patent is not a right to practice or use the invention. Rather, a patent provides the right to exclude others from making...or importing the patented invention..."
Wikipedia also illustrates this with a nice example. If I own a patent for a mousetrap, and you make an improved mousetrap based on my design, then you cannot sell your mousetrap without my permission. So, even if companies like Apple and Microsoft say that they have improved upon the original idea of a touchpad, they could still be in trouble.
Possible options
Of course, the court case doesn't mean that no music player can ever come out with a touchpad. The critical reason why patents are awarded is to protect the inventor, and one can be sure that most of the companies involved, which have deep pockets, can cut a deal with Tsera, the company that is claiming that its patent has been violated.
While the judge will no doubt consider various issues, it would be interesting to know why Tsera waited so long to file the case is it a patent troll (a company that enforces its patents against alleged infringers in an opportunistic manner) that merely waited for the market to grow so that companies that it is accusing have no option bout to pay it exorbitant fees to get and use its patent?
QUICK TAKE
>>Tsera has filed a case against companies like Microsoft and Apple
>>The company says that it has a patent on the touchpad
>>Is Tsera doing this just to make money?
Case data
>>Plaintiff: Tsera, LLC
>>Defendant: Apple Inc., Auditek Corp., Bang & Olufsen America, Inc., Bang & Olufsen A/S, Coby Electronics Corp.,, Cowon America, Inc., Cowon Systems, Inc., Dane Elec Corp. USA, Data Station, Inc., IMA-Hong Kong, Ltd., Impecca USA, Inc., iRiver, Inc., Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V., Lasonic Electronics Corp., LG Electronics U.S.A., Inc.,, LG Electronics, Inc., LG Electronics Mobilecomm U.S.A., Inc., Mach Speed Technologies, Inc., Meizu Technology Co., Ltd., Microsoft Corp., Philips Electronics North America Corp., Spectra Merchandising International Inc. and TrekStor GmbH & Co. KG
>>Case Number: 6:2009cv00312
>>Filed: July 15, 2009
>>Court: Texas Eastern District Court
Source: www.justia.com
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