Apple files suit against Motorola for multi-touch patent infringement

By on Oct 30, 2010 at 12:35 PM
Business October 30, 2010

Apple blog Patently Apple is reporting that Cupertino’s fruit company has filed two separate lawsuits against Motorola for patent infringement, specifically around multi-touch IP. The infringing products? The Motorola DROID, DROID 2, DROID X, CLIQ, CLIQ XT, BackFlip, Devour, Devour i5, and Charm 1. That is just about every Android Motorola handset in the United States. Apple’s lawsuits cover six specific patent infringements, and we have them listed out after the break. Someone needs to tell all these tech companies to hide their kids, hide their wives, and hide they husbands, too, ‘cuz everybody gettin’ sued out here.

[Via 9to5Mac]

One: Apple, Inc patent titled: Ellipse Fitting for Multi-Touch Surfaces: Patent Abstract: Apparatus and methods are disclosed for simultaneously tracking multiple finger and palm contacts as hands approach, touch, and slide across a proximity-sensing, multi-touch surface. Identification and classification of intuitive hand configurations and motions enables unprecedented integration of typing, resting, pointing, scrolling, 3D manipulation, and handwriting into a versatile, ergonomic computer input device.

Two: Apple, Inc patent titled: Multipoint Touchscreen: Patent Abstract: A touch panel having a transparent capacitive sensing medium configured to detect multiple touches or near touches that occur at the same time and at distinct locations in the plane of the touch panel and to produce distinct signals representative of the location of the touches on the plane of the touch panel for each of the multiple touches is disclosed.

Three: Taligent, Inc patent titled: Object-Oriented System Locator System: Patent Abstract: A method and system for adding system components (documents, tools, fonts, libraries, etc.) to a computer system without running an installation program. A location framework is employed to locate system components whose properties match those specified in search criteria. The framework receives notification from the system when system components whose properties match the search criteria are added to or removed from the system.

Four: Apple, Inc, patent titled: Touch Screen Device, Method, and Graphical User Interface for Determining Commands by Applying Heuristics: Apple’s invention generally relates to electronic devices with touch screen displays, and more particularly, to electronic devices that apply heuristics to detected user gestures on a touch screen display to determine commands.

Five: Apple Computer, Inc. patent titled: Method and Apparatus for Displaying and Accessing Control and Status Information in a Computer System: Apple’s invention generally relates to the field of computer systems; particularly, the present invention relates to displaying a status and control function bar or window to enable access of user selected indicia to a computer system user.

Six: Apple Computer, Inc. patent titled: Support for Custom User-Interaction Elements in a Graphical, Event-Driven Computer System: Apple’s invention relates to graphical, event-driven computer systems, more particularly to custom interactive user-interaction elements in a computer system having a window-based graphical user interface.

Apple is asking for an injunction, damages, royalties, and legal costs for the lawsuits.

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  • watbetch

    The CLIQ doesn’t have Multitouch last I checked, even with the new 2.1 update.

    • i told you so .com

      it should, did you try to pinch to zoom in the browser?

    • mingkee

      My XT720 does have multi-touch zoom.

      • i told you so .com

        righy, pretty much every device running Android 2.1 should have multitouch right?

      • Mr.Bill

        Except Sony Ericsson…

    • PAPINYC

      OMG, you changed your name Sandy S. Schwartz (a.k.a. Miss Contract Lawyer in Manhattan); now can you change that horrid picture. I realize tomorrow is Halloween but, no need to scare us year round.

      Trick or Treat?

      • zee

        Papinyc i downloaded the sex offender app……just lettin you know.

      • PAPINYC

        Oh great, now you can track down all of your missing relatives [allegedly].

        Sandy S Schwartz, can you please show this guy your picture again and scare him away. Thanks.

        Better yet, Zee, I hear Mount Everest now has 3G, why don’t you go climb it’s summit and send us a post just before you jump; just for final confirmation.

        Gracias et Merci Mil Fois!

    • PAPINYC

      BTW, you almost look like Jocelyn Wildenstein, except she had good work done.

  • i told you so .com

    im just kidding, I love this site people get some sensative (did I spell it right lol). I myself have a Droid X with Verizon, and love my droid. I hope Apple dosent win any of these patent wars, hopefully MOTO can start the on slaught.

    • Attila434AD

      I wish they made the Droid X with GSM too

      • i told you so .com

        me and you both, because Verizon is killing me with their prices. I wish they came out with a Tmobile Version. Anyone have a G2, if so is it comparable to the Droid line?

  • Attila434AD

    Apple with all the respect, you know verey good to sue How about us sueing Apple for the iphone 4 mass?

    • i told you so .com

      yup, and I think they have a lawsuit right now in California, lets hope they loose that one too.

      • hemdroid

        Don’t you mean “LOSE”? “Loose” is the opposite of “tight”.

      • i told you so .com

        hey get off my nuts, im on a virtual keyboard on my droid, at work and have to type fast not to get caught. This aint a spelling B so calm the F down.

  • Weston

    You don’t have to come and confess. Apple’s lookin for you.. they gonna find you, they gonna find you.

  • droiduser1

    motorola created the original model for the iphone when it was called the i-tunes phone. jobs wouldn’t use moto then for the prototype if he wasn’t sure they’d be protected.

    Granted he did take the iphone and steal some of its specs at the time(from the moto model) then style the phone shape from htc(who had a touch screen b4 the iphone btw and patented the iphone 1′s shape) and got it produced elsewhere, Motorola probably has mobile phone patents no one even remembers and they know first how iphone’s should work(if apple had stuck with moto they’d have no dropped calls that’s for sure).

    Moto sued apple b/c they know how apple works thanks to the early i-tunes phone model all apple has is the multi-touch card which hasn’t been proven they own since they are fighting elan in court over it, no judge can rule in favor of apple in this case b/c they might very likely lose the elan case.

    Motorola has been in the mobile game longer than apple, this is apple’s arrogance and fear speaking and it will cost them.

    Apple is gonna sue and lose one day big like they lost that lawsuit a month ago or two ago only this time if they lose to htc or nokia they’ll be banned from selling iphone’s since that’s what htc and nokia asked the court for.

    jobs needs to chill with that arrogance of his.

  • http://www.buymobile.net BuyMobile.net

    I’ll admit that Apple and steve jobs have genius technology but all the lawsuits are bound to turn on them at some point. They can’t claim to have invented every new product that hits the market.

    Buy Mobile

  • Encino

    Hahahaha lmfao that was a good finishing line

  • Obj_me

    God gotta love all the fandroids here! This is about licensing and royalties. Right, wrong or indifferent the ENTIRE industry does it. Apple, HTC, Nokia, Moto… All of them! Apple isn’t doing this cause of SJ’s ego or because they’re scared of their own demise, it’s business as usual. Honestly if Apple did in fact pick up these patents with their acquisition of Fingerworks they saw what would catch on and made a smart business decision. Moto and everyone else should pay licensing if Apple legitimately owns this particular IP. Again the whole industry licenses and it’s a big part of the revenue stream. All of the fandroids need to STFU, you all remind of M$ script kiddies from 1999, talking about shit you don’t have a damn clue about. Hell Apple is in the top five and they only sell a single smartphone, I don’t think they’re going anywhere soon. I don’t get why apple fanboys need to hate android and fandroids need to hate apple. It makes no sense, they both offer an excellent product with a great user experience and as far geeks go 99 out of 100 times the device needs to be rooted or jailbroken. I mean damn Apple and the Android world don’t even need to hate eachother, their users take care of that for them! This is just business as usual, not really anything to see here! Again this just reenforces my whole idea that civility will never come to the mobile world and it’s users… I really don’t get it, I think both android and iOS are great platforms and I love the fact that android has MT, at this point it’s an essential feature. It seems to me that this is like all the Win98 users hating apple in the late `90s but now it’s android. WTF gives? You don’t like jobs? Ok I get that but u ain’t holding him in your hand Everytime you use an iOS device!!!!

    • UR ScriptKiddie

      the only reason iPhone/Apple is in the top five is because they only have one phone. Android still has more market share, and if you look at numbers for just the latest iPhone the numbers look much smaller. Apple has seen it’s glory day’s, it’s all down hill from here. The reason Jobs gets so much grief is because he’s the snob that makes statements like, “we love flash memory” when asked about adobe flash. He’s the smartest moron that I know, but he’s still a moron.

      • wanderer

        Wouldn’t it be so funny if the one phone had the most marketshare over Android(20 something phones and 3 more every month, buy one take one on Fridays)?

  • crapplesucks

    Crapple feels its losing marketshare and Android is rising, so instead of innovating or trying to fix the damn antenna problem that makes you have to buy a cover for your shiny toy *phone, they decide to sue the competition.

    F*&$ Crapple, they’re this decade’s Microsoft. Rather than compete, they sue.

    • i told you so .com

      sue them, and try to jump to their major seller Verizon. They have no choice, because the droid onslaught has caught up.

      • droiduser1

        won’t stop the onslaught lol… verizon’s iphone will be usa cdma only… verizon’s androids going forward will be cdma world phones and in 2011 LTE standard. So there will be LTE, WiMax and T-mobile’s high speed network supporting androids into 4G with the iphones being stuck on 3G/Cdma until jobs decides LTE is worth investing in which could be a yr to 3 yrs based on his wait and see leadership.

        anyone who buys an iphone on verizon is gonna be a sucker and stuck with old tech when compared to what will be out.

      • izzy

        wait till the dual core androids arrive with LTE… apple will be far behind the game.

  • laughapple

    I guess if that’s their standard, someone should sue Steve Jobs for stealing and using their “douche” personality, or did he invent that too?

  • BDUS

    What next? Apple invented stroking it with the left hand.

    • STR

      They can keep that invention to themselves. It just doesn’t work.

      • http://www.innovatoys.com/ Cindy Auligny

        I don’t think that Apple will keep those inventions which don’t work. They’re smart enough to do that.

      • Madness

        Just flip your good hand around the other way. I would say have the missus do it, but god knows a hand j is a waste of time

  • lurch

    My Samsung Android phone has multi-touch. Why are the only suing Motorola?

    • droiduser1

      b/c samsung supplies parts for the iphone…jobs would pretty much kill the iphone by suing samsung. They’d simply pull the parts they sell to apple.

      jobs won’t attack microsoft(again), he won’t sue palm/hp/rim/ibm/lenovo/sun/oracle b/c they have greater patents and in ibm’s case they invented multi-touch and probably own a patent that would put apple out of business but ibm isn’t in hardware anymore so it doesn’t matter and he won’t go after samsung, they could kill the iphone if they choose.

      jobs will go after everyone else he assumes he can bully but he’ll lose there too. look up what happened when he tried to bully Sun after microsoft beat apple in court, the ex-ceo of sun retold the story a few months ago, it was great b/c he shut jobs down and killed his arrogance with one phone call and had jobs running.

  • bob

    there gonna start runnin ads for antipsychotic drugs on this site soon…

  • David Steeve

    This is getting ridiculous , they are trying to patent the way we move our fingers. Next thing Steve will patent the way he sits on the toilet.

    • laughapple

      Steve doesn’t sit on the toilet, he glides over it.

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