Apple has been hit with yet another suit targeting the iPhone. This time it is EMG Technology, which claims that the iPhone??™s Safari web browser infringes on an EMG??™s patent ???in the way the iPhone navigates the Internet.??? The company asked the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to prevent Apple from further patent infringement and seeks unspecified damages, which would include royalties and lost profit.
According to the law offices of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, the lawsuit filed on Monday accuses Apple of infringing U.S. Patent No. 7,441,196 in the way the iPhone navigates the Internet.
The suit did not mention any details of the infringement, but referred to the title of EMG??™s patent, which reads ???Apparatus and Method of Manipulating a Region on a Wireless Device Screen for Viewing, Zooming and Scrolling Internet Content??? as well as specific claims covering the display of Internet content reformatted from HTML to XML on mobile devices.
Elliot Gottfurcht, owner of EMG Technology and a real estate developer in West Los Angeles, filed for the patent in March 2006, was granted the patent on October 21 of this year and transferred all rights to the patent to EMG on November 19. Gottfurcht makes a total of 76 claims relating to mobile web browsing. Certain claims date back to previous patents filed by Gottfurcht in 1999 and 2000.
???Web sites are just beginning to develop their mobile sister sites for fast and easy navigation,??? Stanley Gibson, partner at Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, said. ???For example, to access NBC on a computer the URL is NBC.com. For the mobile site on the iPhone, the URL would be m.NBC.com. [EMG??™s] patent covers the simplified interface of reformatted mobile content to provide optimum viewing and navigation with single touches on a small screen.???
Since Apple uses technology outlined in EMG??™s patent and since Apple does not have a license to the technology, EMG claims that it has ???has suffered damage in an amount to be proved at trial.??? EMG also said that ???Apple threatens to continue to engage in the acts complained of herein and, unless restrained and enjoined, will continue to do so, all to Plaintiff??™s irreparable injury.???
In the suit, EMG asks the court to confirm that its patent is valid and enforceable and that Apple has infringed on the patent; to prevent Apple from infringing on its patent; to order Apple to report how it will comply with the injunction within 30 days and to award damage, ???including a reasonable royalty and/or lost profits??? as well as ???pre-judgment and post-judgment interest.???
Source: TG Daily
