Last year, Elan Microelectronics filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. Now, the Taiwanese manufacturer is once again going to take Apple to court and this time, over a new patent that will affect the sales and distribution of major Apple devices such as the iPhone, the iPod Touch and the iPad.
With the iPad still not yet released and the patent for the iPad only recently filed, it is likely that Elan will have a very strong case by focusing on Apple’s new touch screen device. The Taiwanese manufacturer already won a lawsuit against Synaptics Inc over the very same patent that they are accusing Apple of infringing. If the lawsuit pushes through, the shipping of Apple products could potentially be put on hold.
On their official website, Elan Microelectronics has stated that “Apple is violating Section 337 of the Tariff Act of 1930, as amended, by importing its iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook and Magic Mouse products into the United States, that infringe Elan’s U.S. Patent No. 5,825,352. (the “352 patent”). Elan also alleges that the importation of Apple’s iPad products, which Apple has indicated will be available to consumers on April 3, violates section 337. Elan is requesting that the ITC issue a permanent exclusion order barring the importation of those products into the United States, as well as a cease and desist order barring Apple from selling any of these products in the United States that it has already imported.”
The 352 patent sounds pretty vague, but it does give Elan ownership of the technology: “the 352 patent is a fundamental patent to the detection of multi-fingers that allows for any subsequent multi-finger applications to be implemented.”
Some have stated that Apple is suffering from karmic backlash over their aggressive 20 patent lawsuit against HTC.
Find out more about the recently filed lawsuit against apple at PC World.
Tags: Apple, Apple-iPad, AppleiPhone, Elan, HTC