New York — The sphere of patent lawsuits has moved out of control. The most latest and bizarre patent lawsuit issues from EMG Technology, LLC, who has filed suit at the US District Court in Tyler, Texas, alleging that Apple’s use of a system that shrinks pages to fit smaller screens, which it says infringes US Patent 7,441,196 that was awarded to EMG on 21 October.
An American real estate developer turned inventor, who established EMG Technology, LLC, to hold a newly purchased patent, has started legal proceedings against Apple over its Mobile Safari patent, claiming that he holds the ownership to the intellectual property rights to iPhone-like web browsing on mobile devices.
The patent under consideration, U.S. Patent number 7,441,196, describes an “Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content.” It was filed on March 13, 2006, and was granted on October 21, 2008.
Stanley Gibson, a partner with Los Angeles law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro who is acting for EMG, said: “The claims cover the display of internet content reformatted from HTML to XML on mobile devices — the industry standard currently displayed by the iPhone. Additional patent claims include the technology for manipulating a region of the screen for zooming and scrolling.”
“Web sites are just beginning to develop their mobile sister sites for fast and easy navigation. For example, to access NBC on a computer the URL is NBC.com. For the mobile site on the iPhone, the URL would be m.NBC.com. The ‘196 patent covers the simplified interface of reformatted mobile content to provide optimum viewing and navigation with single touches on a small screen.”
The suit was filed in the Eastern District of Texas, which is famous for its siding with patent holders over the companies who they are suing.
According to reports on the background, Elliot Gottfurcht was the original developer of Beverly Park, which stands atop the Beverly Hills Hotel, the 800-home Beverly Glen Park, and the Carriage House, which is now the Westwood Village “W” Hotel.
Apple is widely believed to have been working on the Safari Pad since five years now, and should not have much problem proving prior art.
Apple is the only company named in the suit. “We have not looked at anything other than the iPhone,” Gibson said in a statement. “That was the device that we looked at. Obviously, it is very popular.”
Gibson recently took part in a similar suit against Medtronic which was settled for $570m (£377m).
It seems that Gottfurcht has got a few bucks piled around and is looking for a quick payout from a lawsuit against Apple.
Apple, of course, said it does not comment on ongoing litigation.