Apple’s Entire Touch-Enabled Device Range Subjected To Patent Lawsuit

FlatWorld Interactives, a company that designed touchscreen displays for museums and other exhibits, has claimed that Apple’s entire line of touch-enabled products is infringing on one of its patents.

The Pennsylvania-based company states in a court filing that products including the iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad, MacBook Air, sixth generation iPod Nano and Magic Mouse all infringe on a “gesture recognition technology” it developed in the mid-90s.

Museum displays in patent suit

Slavko Milekic, a professor of Cognitive Science and Digital Design at the University of Arts in Philadelphia, originally developed the patents for intuitive touchscreens to be used by children. The key patent in question (US Patent No. 6,920,619) was initially issued in 2005, but when Milekic launched FlatWorld in 2007 for the purpose of “promoting and commercialising” his invention, he had the patent reissued by the US Patent Office as No. RE43,318 (‘318).

FlatWorld claims in the filing that it informed Apple of the reissued patent in a letter dated September 2007, just two months after the first iPhone was released.

It is described as: “A system for manipulating images comprising a screen upon which an image is displayed; and a computer coupled to the screen, the computer causing the images to be manipulated in response to location inputs from a pointing device, the system being characterised in that: when the image is being dragged in response to the location inputs and the system detects that the velocity with which the image is being dragged exceeds a threshold velocity, the system responds by removing the image from the display without leaving any representative thereof in the display.”

“Reading FlatWorld’s patent is like reading the description of gesture recognition features of any of the accused products on Apple’s website,” said Steve Berman, the managing partner of Hagens Berman, the law firm that filed the claim on behalf of FlatWorld. “It is clear that FlatWorld owns technology that Apple has used to drive billions of dollars in infringing sales.”

FlatWorld is hoping to gain a permanent injunction against Apple to prevent further infringement of its ‘318 patent. Additionally, it has asked the court for a jury trial and to grant compensation and damages if evidence shown supports the infringement claims made.

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