Apple hit with legal double whammy
Apple has been hit with what appears to be an ambitious lawsuit claiming it stole the technology used for internet surfing on cellphone screens. It comes at the same time as yet another case alleging false advertising over the iPhone’s performance.
The intellectual property suit comes from Los Angeles based firm EMG Technology and claims the iPhone’s internet display breaches a patent belonging to EMG founder Elliot Gottfurcht.
On the surface, the case seems shaky at best, particularly given Gottfurcht only got the patent last month. The fact that EMG isn’t suing any other phone manufacturer certainly gives the impression it’s simply going after the biggest target to try its luck at the legal jackpot. If that isn’t the case, it’s not a great idea for EMG’s lawyer Stanley Gibson to tell Reuters, “We haven’t looked at anything other than the iPhone. That was the device that we looked at. Obviously it’s very popular.”
Ironically, the biggest headache for Apple in this situation may be the problem we reported on last week: its inconsistent policy on storing company e-mails. In a previous case in which another Gibson won a $570 million payout, he successfully demanded the defendants hand over the equivalent of 44 million pages of company records. He later wrote about the need for such firms to have a better policy for managing and storing e-mails to cut the costs of searching for documents relevant to a particular case.
Meanwhile a San Diego man is suing Apple for $5 million, claiming it mislead iPhone buyers by exaggerating the performance and speed of the device. It follows a similar ongoing case in New York which also accuses Apple of shoddy workmanship thanks to hairline cracks appearing in some iPhone cases.
A third case based in Alabama has seen some allegations dismissed by the court, but the plaintiffs are still pursuing their claim that Apple unfairly profited by selling the phones despite them not performing as advertised.
Related Posts:
November 25th, 2008
People in the US like to sue over stupid shit!
November 27th, 2008
I agree with the above comment, people are just so greedy they try to sue companies over the stupidest things!