AfterDawn: News

Apple sued over iPhone keyboard

Its nothing new for smaller companies to issue frivolous lawsuits once a successful product has been launched by a powerful conglomerate. Although, this newest one just might have some warrant. SP Technologies has taken out a lawsuit on Apple over its new iPhone and the touch-screen keyboard that is the heart of controlling the device. Looking through a patent filing from 2000 by SP Technologies, it states that the company had developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area."

Of course, people sue over patents all the time and Apple wasn't the first company to incorporate a touch-screen input device. The suit was filed in Tyler, Texas on Thursday. Texas seems to have become the state of choice for all patent suits recently. It just might be because judges tend to be lenient on the smaller companies.



This comes just a few weeks after a lawsuit was entered about the iPhone's battery. The lawsuit was taken out against Apple in the name of one iPhone owner, Jose Trujillo who claimed Apple defrauded him by failing to reveal that the iPhone battery was not user-replaceable, and that it would die after 300 charges.

Source:
CNet

Written by: Dave Horvath @ 7 Aug 2007 19:57

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• 19 comments

• WierdName

  Does this bring to mind to anyone else the Weird Al Yankovic I'll sue ya song?

  7.8.2007 20:52 #1

• dallasj

  Abso-friggin-lutely. The courts are so filled up with this kind up crap that no real justice can be served.

  7.8.2007 21:32 #2

• theridges

  are you serious...
  so the battery can die after 300 charges...
  so then what u have to take it to at&t or send it in for replacement?

  8.8.2007 01:18 #3

• maryjayne

  300 charges will last long enough for the warrantee to expire and for ATT to discontinue the phone. So getting a replacement will be next to impossible.

  8.8.2007 07:15 #4

• akkie1254

  anybody have the activation key of this phone.
  if somebody find it. then please give it to me.
  thanx.

  8.8.2007 07:19 #5

• M4DHATT3R

  That whole thing with the battery...didn't Apple go through this with the first generation iPod's? If I remember correctly wasn't there a lot of complaints with the first gen. iPod's that they died after only a few hundred charges and how they are non-replaceable (thus giving a pretty much a $400 brick). If that's the case then you would of think Apple learned it's mistakes. This is disappointing coming from a company that is supposedly high on carring about the customer.

  8.8.2007 19:18 #6

• duckNrun

  Well Apple is DEFINATELY high on something....
  
  obviously it's not caring about the customer though. They rely too much on the fanboy element who will drop their wallet at anything CRapple and think that by having the phone sent in, paying close to $100 bucks to have anew battery placed in it, and having their phone wiped clean of all data isn't a bad thing but is actually a beneficial and non-intrusive FEATURE of the phone!

  8.8.2007 22:19 #7

• wolf123

  If a average charge last 12 hours then that's 2 charges a day so thatt is less then half a year the battery wil last if you use this way if you add in the time you talk and use it too 3 hours a day too 6 then it will last a little longer.
  
  I think this is a bunch of crap if they new this then this phone must of been made over 2 years agon and just now it was released and too cost 600 dollars who ever gets this is just an idiot.

  9.8.2007 08:34 #8

• WierdName

  Originally posted by wolf123: ...who ever gets this is just an idiot.Unless they get it for free. Then they can turn around and sell it to the fanboys.

  9.8.2007 08:42 #9

• duckNrun

  @ ziplok..
  
  While EVERYONE except the 10% of the public that owns 90% of the money can always use more of it I simply choose NOT to support apple with an iPhone purchase. This is not because I can't AFFORD a $600 phone but because I really couldn't care less about it and believe that there are much better uses of my money than to buy this device.
  
  FOr those who want to buy it that is there choice. BUT since this is being marketed to the general cell phone using public who may not be aware that this battery issue does in fact exist it speaks tons about the true nature of Apple. Otherwise they would have more clearly disclosed this fact than hidden beneath a heap of fine print and click throughs. MOST people who use cell phones are of the rightly expected notion that when their battery finally dies that they simply CHANGE OUT the battery as is done in EVERY OTHER cell phone that has been made!
  
  Complaining about Apple's methods does not show an inability to pay for their over priced wares it simply shows a mentality that allows one to assess and reflect upon a situation and formulate a cohesive argument for or against such practices.
  
  However there are those who simply cannot meet the bar on intellectual conversations and instead revert back to name calling, insults and (not so) innuendo's about how these people who think differently are instead just too poor to support the obviously supreme Jobs and company...
  
  Now I wonder which group YOU fall into?

  9.8.2007 13:34 #10

• WierdName

  Originally posted by duckNrun: Now I wonder which group YOU fall into?OOH, OOH! I KNOW, I KNOW. PICK ME. The latter? Am I right? Do I win anything?
  
  EDIT- @ziplock, I can afford it. I just don't think the Iphone is worth the $600 price tag. Especially when you can't use it unless you have an active contract that costs even more to get from the only retailer that provides them. If microsucks pulled something like this, all you crapple fanboys would be all over dis-in them. And rightly so, but not if your a fanboy just sticking up for every single thing done by your favorite company and knockin other companies for the same exact crap.

  9.8.2007 14:06 #11

• duckNrun

  Quote:Originally posted by duckNrun: Now I wonder which group YOU fall into?OOH, OOH! I KNOW, I KNOW. PICK ME. The latter? Am I right? Do I win anything?
  
  LOL.... yes you are the winner....here's your cookie.
  
  ;-)

  9.8.2007 14:24 #12

• WierdName

  Mmmmm, tasty.

  9.8.2007 14:51 #13

• hermes_vb

  What did you expect. After all they stole the mouse from Xerox...

  11.8.2007 10:16 #14

• hermes_vb

  What did you expect. After all they stole the mouse from Xerox...

  11.8.2007 10:18 #15

• WierdName

  Originally posted by hermes_vb: What did you expect. After all they stole the mouse from Xerox...Lol.

  11.8.2007 12:56 #16

• Unfocused

  Do they make more money off of the produts that they sell, or they money they obtain via lawsuits?

  14.8.2007 22:13 #17

• WierdName

  Originally posted by Unfocused: Do they make more money off of the produts that they sell, or they money they obtain via lawsuits?Actually, it's a well balanced combination. First they sell their products to get going. Once they obtain enough money to pay for lawyers to find/makeup "patent infringements" by other companies. So it really depends on the stage of the company. Obviously, this company is at the second, suing, stage.

  14.8.2007 23:04 #18

• borhan9

  The battery lawsuit i understand but this lawsuit about a toch scren come on many products have this capability these days.

  17.8.2007 17:17 #19