August 7th, 2007
Apple Sued Over iPhone Virtual Keyboard
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Pile on the bandwagon for iPhone lawsuits. I mean, Apple was sued over its battery replacement policy … now it’s being sued over its virtual keyboard. It’s been accused of violating a patent hed by SP Technologies, which describes a “method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination.” Yeah, I said “huh” too. But it’s the touch-screen keyboard they’re complaining about in the suit.
More interesting than that is the fact that the owner of said patent is Peter V. Boesen, a Des Moines, Iowa, surgeon recently sentenced to 51 months in federal penitentiary for healthcare fraud.
You’d think this guy would spend his lawyer fees on, say, appeals, but instead he’s filing lawsuit. Apparently he’s also filed plenty of other patent lawsuits in the past, through SP Technologies, against companies such as Canon, LG Electronics, and Kyocera.
No word from Apple in response to the lawsuit yet.
We Say: Can you spell “nuisance lawsuit?”
New Sense says:
Ha ha, I will sue you all with my 1996 masterpiece patent “Method and apparatus for allowing web site visitors to leave comments on a site.”
Valid only in the US, of course. No other country would be insane enough to accept such a thing and enforce it.
August 7th, 2007 at 8:28 am