Apple Hit with Two More Lawsuits by S3 Graphics

VIA subsidiary S3 Graphics, soon to be engulfed by HTC, has filed two new lawsuits against Apple Inc. with the US International Trade Commission (ITC) and with a Delaware court, citing patent infringement.

It is pouring with patent suits targeting Apple as of late, and the most recent ones come from S3 Graphics, an American company specializing in graphics chipsets currently owned by VIA Technologies (which just so happens to also be embroilled in a lawsuit with Apple).

The ITC complaint mentions "Electronic Devices with Graphics Data Processing Systems, Components Thereof, and Associated Software"

The federal lawsuit filed with the District of Delaware targets "certain electronic devices and components, [for example], the Apple iPhone, iPad, an[d] iPod Touch mobile devices, Apple Mac desktop and notebook computers, alone or in combination with associated system and application software sold or distributed by Apple," according to Foss Patents.

Both suits cover the same two patents allegedly violated by Apple with its iPhone, iPad, iPod touch players, and even Macintosh computers.

Patent No. 5,945,997, entitled  "block- and band-oriented traversal in three-dimensional triangle rendering", speaks of “A system and method for traversing and rendering a graphic primitive represented in screen space, employing block- and band-oriented traversal algorithms in texture mapping.”

Patent No. 5,581,279, a filing describing a "VGA controller circuitry" describes a “‘chip set’ of a graphics adapter interface card [that] is reduced to a monolithic integrated circuit that includes a programmable analog clock circuit for producing a video memory clock and a video dot clock.”

Foss Patents, authored Florian Mueller (an expert in intellectual property lawsuits), reveals that the "companion lawsuit" filed in Delaware will be stayed until after the ITC trial, but only if the ITC agrees to investigate the new complaint.

Apple would also need to specifically ask for it, says Muller, who outlines that “companion lawsuits are filed because the ITC cannot order damages -- only federal courts can.”