14 DAY TRIAL // The recent iPhone lawsuit against Apple becomes more dubious the more you look into it. SP Technologies claims that Apple deliberately violated their patent through the sale of the iPhone and has gone after the company with guns blazing, but how is this company and what is this patent they are defending?
SP Technologies claims that the iPhone's keyboard violates a patent they have, U.S. patent number 6,784,873 B1, to be precise. This patent describes a "method and medium for a computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination" and lists Peter V. Boesen as the inventor.
Looking at the patent in question, it becomes clear that while there may be some similarities, there are even more differences. A method and medium for a computer readable input area. The input area is created by a computer program on a display capable of receiving touch-screen input. The computer on which the input area in used is at least a 32-bit system. The input area may contain a keyboard which is an image map. External programming may selectively access the input area through a dynamic link library. The input area has no task bar and may not be minimized, maximized, or deleted. Therefore, the input area becomes an integral component and provides the user with a constant and reliable method of inputting information into the computer program.
The patent describes a keyboard that is vastly different from the iPhone one. The iPhone keyboard is dynamic, appearing and disappearing depending on whether it is needed or not, changing its layout and even adjusting the logical size of the keys depending on the content that has been typed? a far cry from the image map mentioned in the patent.
Looking further, it would seem that SP Technologies has gone after other companies as well, filing suits against Canon, LG Electronics and Kyocera. As for the inventor of the patented technology, federal crime records show that Boesen was sentenced to prison in May following a conviction on defrauding Iowa's Medicare and Medicaid programs by filing false claims. He was also ordered to repay the state and private insurers more than $900,000.
Apple should fight this one to the end and countersuit to put a stop to such lawsuits.