14 DAY TRIAL // Apple is targeted by a lawsuit filed this week in a U.S. District Court in Delaware by a company called Robocast, whose founder claims the Mac maker has infringed on his invention relating to an "Automated browsing system for publishers and users on networks serving internet and remote devices."
The Apple TV, iTunes and Front Row are specifically mentioned in the suit filings which note that Robocast founder, Damon Torres, "pioneered the use of automated web browsing" in the '90s.
[admark=1]The complaint credits Torres for creating a "new paradigm" in the Web browsing experience, according to a report by AppleInsider.
Robocast alleges that "Mr. Torres foresaw the far broader potential of the Web as a medium for content delivery that functioned more like television, but with the significant benefits provided by user interactivity and control, and the vast resources accessible via the Internet.”
According to the filings, this technology was first exhibited at the Spring Internet World show in Los Angeles, California, in April 1999.
Robocast claims that, at the time, an Apple staffer going by the name of Fred Reynolds visited the company’s booth and learned of the invention.
It is being suggested that Reynolds returned to Apple with the idea that was later implemented in products like the Apple TV and iTunes.
The complaints specifically states that “Apple has since incorporated Robocast's patented automated browsing technology into a number of its products and services, including at least the following: Apple TV, FrontRow, and iTunes.”
The patent application Apple is allegedly infringing on relates to “a method of sequencing and scheduling web resources, via a software application that collects URLs and feeds them to a Web browser, so that the amount of clicks and decisions are reduced when browsing the Internet,” according to the patent description published on freepatentsonline.com.
“The method begins after a computer user with Net-access encounters a URL that leads to a collection of other URLs that the software application has arranged to be presented in a continuous, show manner,” the summary reads.