Apple Hit by iPhone Touch-Screen Suit

August 7th, 2007

orget about the trademark battle with Cisco over the use of the name iPhone and prepare for the onslaught of patent claims against Apple’s latest device. One of the first is a patent suit over the iPhone’s touch-screen keyboard.SP Technologies has sued Apple for infringement on a patent that SP filed in August 2000. SP Technologies, a Florida company, is seeking a permanent injunction against the Mac-maker. SP also seeks damages and attorney fees.

SP’s patent, which was awarded in August 2004, is for a “method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination.” The document describes software that allows users to input directions on a virtual keyboard that cannot be minimized or closed. That description sounds much like the iPhone keyboard.

“Apple is bumping up against intellectual property portfolios of other companies that have been in the area perhaps longer than Apple,” said Ilan Barzilay, a member of the Litigation Practice Group at Wolf, Greenfield, & Sacks PC. “When you stick your head out, everyone notices. The iPhone is huge, so people who have patent portfolios that may not necessarily attract a whole lot attention, they look at a big product launch and go after them.”

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