Apple Sued Over iTunes, Movie Trailer Site

Droplets Inc., a Texas based Software Company whose clients includes IBM, Borland and Pricewaterhouse Coopers, is suing Apple Inc. over patent infringement relating to how it delivers interactive links to applications.

The patent infringement lawsuit targets not only Apple, but Google, Facebook and Yahoo, according to PatentlyApple.

Filed with the Texas Eastern District Court, Droplets’ complaint accuses Apple of violating a patent that speaks of delivering interactive links to applications and information stored on a network via an object-oriented approach.

Apple's own website, their movie trailer site, iTunes and "other web applications" violate their patent, according to the complaint.

The patent application in question is titled “System and method for delivering a graphical user interface of remote applications over a thin bandwidth connection”, according to the US Patent and Trademark office.

It’s described as “a method and system […] for delivering interactive links for presenting applications and second information at a client computer from remote sources in a network-configured computer processing system.”

The patent summary proposes one embodiment in which informational content is retrieved over a first communication connection, in response to a request of a client computer, with embedded code that needs to be executed for establishing a second connection to an application server.

“The method further includes retrieving over the second communication connection first information including presentational information for presenting the application and the second information,” reads the patent filing.

“The method also includes presenting the application and the second information based upon the presentational information, and storing on the client computer an interactive link for selectively re-establishing the second communication connection to the application server for retrieving the first information and presenting the application and the second information on an as-needed basis,” reads the description.

Filed June 22, 2000, the invention is the brainchild of Franco; Louis M. (Hoboken, NJ), Rose; Frank Leon (Brooklyn, NY), Brittan; Philip S. J. (Brooklyn, NY), Cunningham; Mark (Brooklyn, NY), Bulkin; Alex (Brooklyn, NY), Baskin; Mat (Bronx, NY), Blonder; Greg (Summit, NJ).