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Multi-Touch Tech Firm Seeks iPad Sales Injunction

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the good-luck-with-that dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Taiwan-based Elan Microelectronics just filed a complaint with the US International Trade Commission alleging that Apple is infringing on its patents and violating the Tariff Act, and is seeking a ban on imports of the iPad as well as an order to stop selling the mobile device along with iPhones, iPods, and Macs. The move was taken as a 'continuation of our efforts to enforce our patent rights against Apple's ongoing infringement,' the company said." Considering many iPad pre-orders have tracking #s already, I suspect it might be a little late.

11 of 148 comments (clear)

  1. did anything come of the last suit? by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They sued Apple a year ago with essentially the same complaint about the iPhone, iPod Touch, and MacBook.

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  2. Wait... by AequitasVeritas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt Apple suing HTC over, among other patents, multi-touch? Now Apple is being sued over the same thing?

    So who actually owns this patent?

    1. Re:Wait... by oldspewey · · Score: 4, Funny

      I am secretly hopeful that this will eventually turn into a great big litigation circle-jerk.

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    2. Re:Wait... by UnknowingFool · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's tricky and unless you know more details about the specific case, it's hard to say who actually owns what. This is what I know from the case:

      Apple bought a company called Fingerworks in 2005. Fingeworks made multi-touch keyboard and mice. Shortly after bought by Apple, Fingerworks ceased to sell or make any products. The best guess is that Apple bought Fingerworks solely for it's patents and technology. As of August 2008, Fingerworks continued to file patents.

      Apple releases the iPhone in 2007. Elan Microelectronics sues them thereafter.

      When looking at these patent cases, there has to be certainty about the specific technology involved. Multi-touch is large collection of differing technologies. MS Surface for example relies on cameras whereas the iPhone appears to use capacitance. The devil is in the details and that's what lawyers are for.

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    3. Re:Wait... by John+Whitley · · Score: 4, Informative

      The best guess is that Apple bought Fingerworks solely for it's patents and technology.

      There's actually almost zero guessing on this point, although it takes some digging to find all of the facts. Much of the details were posted on the Fingerfans forum back when the purchase happened. Other useful info may exist primarily in the Internet Archive at this point.

      Synopsis: Fingerworks as a company was a young venture founded based on Wayne Westerman's Ph.D. work relating to capacitive multi-touch interfaces. Fingerworks was one of the first companies to have useful (awesome, actually) multitouch based products on the open market. These included the GesturePad, a multi-touch pointing device not dissimilar to the recent Wacom Bamboo Touch; and the TouchStream multi-touch keyboard. The TouchStream was pretty cool: max typing speeds were slower than a conventional keyboard, but the whole surface was usable for multitouch pointer input and gestures.

      Apple apparently liked what they saw and bought the company up -- its patent portfolio as well as Westerman and their core R&D team. This was not even remotely public knowledge at the time. To outsiders' view, Fingerworks practically vanished. The release of the first iPhone was the coming-out party for this technology at Apple. Westerman and his team have continued to do multi-touch research at Apple, issuing a variety of patents under the auspices of their new company. I recall a few of those being mentioned on Slashdot in the past, specifically one about ongoing work to improve haptics (touch feedback) for multi-touch keyboards.

  3. Re:How do you say by knappe+duivel · · Score: 5, Funny

    'Don't multi-touch me there' in Chinese?

    fixed that for you

  4. How do they get these patents? by Mark19960 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Yes I know that prior art is not a slam dunk defense but with all of the prior art regarding 'multi-touch' I can't understand how these companies
    managed to get it patented.
    It seems that everyone has patented the idea except for the people that had it first!
    And it appears that it was not Apple, Google, HTC, or even these guys....

    I should patent something random and start to sue people myself, obviously someone is making money doing it.

  5. Re:How do you say by knappe+duivel · · Score: 4, Funny

    I must be new here

  6. Re:Patent Trolls by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    didn't they kinda give up their rights when they stayed silent when the iPhone launched three years ago?

    You mean when they began patent negotiations, and finally sued for patent infringement a year ago? You can't sue for patent infringement until someone actually infringes on your patent. Two years is not a long time when it comes to doing research and preparing for a patent infringement lawsuit, and it was Apple who requested the trial be delayed so they could prepare. You might have a point if they had waited five or ten years, but at this point any patent infringement lawsuit against the iPhone is still within a reasonable time-frame. It is Apple who is delaying and stalling and generally being a douchebag toward the rest of the cell phone industry here.

    This is Elan Microelectronics basically saying Apple should not be permitted to release a new potentially infringing product while they have litigation in progress that directly concerns the type product they are releasing.

    I think their position is completely reasonable, but I'll admit I might think differently if I were an Apple fan.

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  7. History of Multi-Touch by rivertripper · · Score: 5, Informative

    I have been following this story since April of 2009. This link http://www.billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html is the best explanation of how multi-touch technology was created.

  8. Patent Trolls should maintain their patents by Gr8Apes · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Apparently the patent in question, 5,825,352, has expired due to failure to pay maintenance fees as of Oct 20, 2006.

    So if the patent is expired, what basis are they suing on?

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