14 DAY TRIAL // Wondering who else is being rumored to sue Apple over the iPhone lately? Well, touch sensor chip maker Quantum Research is apparently considering suing Apple over the iPhone's touch-screen interface, as they claim that they have invented the 'change-transfer' technology that is apparently being used in touch-sensitive devices, thus in the iPhone.
If Quantum Research were to sue Apple over this, it would not be the first time the two companies ended up in court. QR's first lawsuit against Apple (still on-going) regarded the iPod's click wheel interface.
The company claimed that Apple's first and second generation iPod nanos employed Cypress' PsoC chip in a way that infringed upon its existing charge transfer patents. Also QR recently announced that in case the iPhone's change transfer technology infringes on one of its patents, it will sue the iPod maker again.
"We will be looking very carefull y at the iPhone," Duncan Bryan, licensing director at Quantum Research (QR), told Electronics Weekly. "The description of the iPhone suggests it uses a rear-surface touch screen, and has proximity sensing which can tell if it is held to the ear. That's a QR capability."
The charge transfer capacity was invented by QR's founder and CEO Hal Philipp and licensed to Motorola, which is using it in the keypads of its mobile phones.
No formal lawsuit has been filed up until now, but since QR has sued Apple before, if it considers that the iPhone infringes on one of its patents, there's no reason not to go on and sue Apple for the second time. At the moment, QR is selling chips to Apple as well as negotiating with the company about the response to the initial lawsuit regarding the iPod nano clickwheel.