Did Apple steal iPhone Software?
Inventor, Elliot Gottfrucht is suing Apple, claiming that part of the web surfing system very on the iPhone is ripped off from his patented system. The patent, filed on March the 13th 2006 was awarded to Gottfrucht’s company, EMG and covers a system for putting web pages onto televisions and mobile devices. It re sizes web content to the right size for the screen it is being viewed on and also allows zooming and scrolling.
Suits like this are par for the course for a company like Apple though they’d be wise to lend this one more credibility than most. EMG do have a system with a patent that was filed more than two years ago, which, even though it was originally meant to apply to interactive TV, sounds an awful lot like the one that the iPhone uses. Plus, EMG have also hired a serious name to represent them. Their attorney, Stanley Gibson was one of the lawyers responsible for securing the $1.35 billion copyright infringement payout from Medtronic. Essentially, this doesn’t sound like your typical nuisance lawsuit.
For the time being EMG are remaining tight lipped about how much they want in compensation though its telling that they have chosen to go after Apple and the iPhone first when thay have a similarly strong claim against any of the other mobile browsers. Some analysts are predicting that they are going after the big gun first with the intention of reaching settlements with the rest if they win.
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