Apple and Microsoft Face Touchpad Lawsuit

Why did it take them 5 years to decide to sue? Seems odd.

I wish I had a patent.

I think for the first time in patent infringement the company accusing is right. Let's just hope that it'll come out that Tsera will not just bank the cash like Rambus (the memory company that just sued every single company in the industry).

They were waiting for lots of big companies to make alot of money.

Probably right.

isn't there a time limit on suing for patent infringement for precisely this reason?

Newton... I think that says enough of how I feel about this frivolous lawsuit

Wait, you mean Apple didn't invent this?

The paragraph is almost so generic. If you replace the first sentence with this: "A mouse is a device that contains an object or a sensor, and a user enters commands by tracing patterns by moving the mouse with his hand.", then it becomes another patent and one can use it to sue everybody!

The paragraph is almost so generic. If you replace the first sentence with this: "A mouse is a device that contains an object or a sensor, and a user enters commands by moving the mouse with his hand.", then it becomes another patent and one can use it to sue everybody!

Fuk the patent system. So what now ? Companies who actualy build stuff for out daily lifes with that technology shouldn`t be allowed because some dumb ass little "company" filled at patent for it and actualy does nothing with it just waiting to suck on other ppl`s work ... legal system sux donkey balls. I wish i had a patent on the wheel ... imagine how rich i could be, or should i start registering random words.

Ionno about Tsera but Rambus is what i like to call a pain in the ass version of a "research" center which basically goes out to make patents and holds them for money.

Yeah well I invented the air eveyone breaths. You all life lovers owe me 23 quadrillon billion dollars with interest Oh wait I forgot to file the patent...I knew I forgot something. Man these lawsuits are getting out of hand.

That is exactly why we have patents in the first place! I with no money can apply for a patent that is a REALLY great idea! I may not have the resources to make it but it is MY idea and I have a right to own it. If I didn't have this right, Apple, Microsoft, whoever could just start using it with never acknowledging me or compensating me on the work I had done prior to them stealing it.

This case points out one of the many flaws with the US Patent System, there are way to many for a single company or person to read through them to see if the idea they have is original. The patent office has curved this by making them serchable, but what I call dohiky may be sprocket to someone else.

My question is why didn't these major corporations try and patent the interface like they do EVERYTHING ELSE?! My guess is they tried but got turned down due to prior patent!

Gotta love patent trolls. Something is very wrong with out patent law when some small "company" can patent the entire concept of portable touch technology.

The patent system is broken because it allows people and companies to file for a patent based on words that can mean anything. Patents should be filled based on real products, or at least real in terms of usage with the right knowledge on how to create that same results (like the touchscreen).. Hell, they could even sue ALL notebook/netbook makers on touchpad with that patent.

Looks like gold-digging to me. Regardless of whether or not it was legit at one time is almost irrelevant, as the patent was awarded 10 years ago. Tsera seems to have just quietly sat on the patent until touchpads became almost an industry standard and then unleashed the lawyers. The system described in the patent is basically how Palm's Graffiti writing program works... Tsera should have filed it back then, though the first Palm actually came out in 1996, so Tsera might not have a leg to stand on.

Lame Patent...This case won't hold up in court as Apple could easily show "obviousness" of the patent. Basically, he is using "graffiti/gesture" technology used in the old palm pilots to create letters and applying it to "all portable devices". I'm surprised he's not getting sued for implementing a previous and obvious idea. I'm surprised he would even be allows a patent to begin with. Taking an existing the touchpad, which has existed for many years, and make a claim to "apply" it to "all portable electronics" is bogus. That's like claiming a patent "An input device with many buttons used to enter in letters and/or commands" to be used on any portable electronic devices...aka a keyboard...This guy deserves nothing and is just wanting a piece of the pie.

Cell phones have used this method for longer than this company has owned the patent.

Not only that, most people would need to look at it to know what they are doing with the touch pad.

But as for the patent itself, it's way to broad and non-specific.

Well if Tsera's legal team waited to use this now is a great idea, because you now have the controlling factor over future developing technologies like the Ipod and handheld devices. This case is identical to Immersion Vs. Sony in 2003, for the use of Force Feedback technology in rumble controllers. With that case, others like Microsoft settled ahead for 26 $Million, while Sony stuck to its own guns and only lost $20.8 Million and is still getting sued by them today.

Jeez. You guys would have the patent system completely abolished and unique ideas and inventions stolen by whomever wants them. In this idiotic world there would be no such thing as a start-up company producing something that no one has made before because the big companies would just steal the idea before a smaller company could come to the market with it. Clearly none of you guys have ever applied for a patent or had a "big idea" that you thought could make money. I agree that there should be some intent to produce that must be proven by the company suing but saying stuff like "fuck the patent system" is just stupid.

As information increases, and businesses pop out faster than the eye can see, patents are following the way of DRM, being more painful than useful, often wrongly used.
Patents are no longer a valid way to protect one's business,and become an obstacle in progress.
If tsera truly owns the patent, it also needs to prove that the devices MS makes, are causing tsera to lose customers. Not because of a better design on MS'sside, but because of the touchpad.

I think there are just too many people blocking progress by patenting all kinds of ideas that they never use, or perhaps where they want to get part of the money a big company will be making off this idea.

If this was true, I'd be rewarded for bringing ideas to AMD for automatically adjusting FSAA when fps go higher than 60fps, and I'd get a share for bringing the idea to intel that lead to the production of the Atom processor.
I just know nothing about patents, and even if I did, I have no way of creating things like that. One needs engineers for that!

Instead, I believe it's only fair to give a thank you to the company that gave you the idea to start out with, (eg a graphics card for ATI, or an atom processor powered device for Intel).
But I don't believe in ripping companies off.
If MS doesn't think it got it's ideas from tsera, then leave them alone!

Patent infringement! Nowadays even artists are patenting phrases in songs, that one is not allowed to copy!
What is that?

now lets sue M$ for their logo being square... I swear I drew it before M$ came up with it....right...

The description is strangely like a system that I worked on that got installed at Epcot Center in the 1980's. I saw it was still operational in 1992. A touchscreen system in a bezel around a CRT, where we could determine the position (starting through ending) and relay that information to a computer which would then take action on that information. Anyone who played with the "Compute-a-coaster" ("designing" a rollercoaster, prompted by a cartoon beaver) used that system. I'm surprised that Tsera could get a patent, considering how many millions must have used the system at Epcot, long before their patent date.

Another worthless lawsuit.

No patents could allow some companies to more properlly compete in some cases could mean we could get better prices with more competition and some companies won't get rich sitting on patents or royalties

Sorry Tsera but back in the 70's and 80's you pushed play and record at the same time to make the electronic device do something extra. Your patent is trash unless you own patents on this early form of pushing buttons. Even the type writer my be seen as such a device which your patent is no where as old.

I think that patent laws should be re-written to require proof of use of the patented idea or otherwise the patent be forfitted. Seriously, I'm all for intellectual property, but not for it to be sat on to attack companies with a peice of paper 5 years down the road.

This is ridiculous and we all know it. Touchpad/screens have been around for quite a long time now and to not know that someone was infringing on this patent by now is stutteringly unbeleivable. They were waiting for this.

When I read this patent, I cannot help but think of the old palm pilots that had a stylus pad area where you use their custom gestures with no instantaneous visual feedback to produce effects on screen. I think those violated this patent.

I fail to see how this idea is either novel or unique application of existing technologies. I also fail to see how this is anything more than an general and abstract idea. I do not equate it to an invention like radio or television, which not only details a method of transmission but new and unique ways of using specific hardware to accomplish these tasks. Instead, it seems more like a patent of "using variations of air pressure and frequency in specific patterns to create discrete communication signals for wireless transmission" - or speech.

I wonder, did anyone here take the time to read the actual patent? I did, and it makes all those who are claiming this patent to be vague look completely ignorant, which would be true of anyone who has not read the actual patent document. The document is very detailed and spells out exactly how the device works. I am not a fan of over-reaching patents but in my opinion (which I feel hold some merit as I am a private inventor and have been in the patent process for some time) this patent is legitimate. Anyone who thinks this patent is too vague would have to agree that Harley Davidson's patent on the V-Twin engine was way , way out of line too.

CAD systems in the 80's used STROKES on a graphic pad to do many commands. So not a new idea, just applying to touch screen rather than a pad, and a portable device rather than a Mini or Mainframe computer. Never should
have been awarded a patent.