Apple facing lawsuit over touchscreen technology alleged patent infringement

Apple is facing a legal challenge by Florida company SP Technologies which claims that the touchscreen on the iPhone infringes a patent taken out in 2000 and granted in 2004.

The "Method and medium for computer readable keyboard display incapable of user termination" patent is to do with "soft" - ie on-screen - keyboards.

The patent continues: "External programming may selectively access the input area through a dynamic link library. The input area has no task bar and may not be minimised, 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."

This all sounds very generic to me.

My Palm PDA has an on-screen keyboard, as do a variety of other devices.

I think Apple should be fairly safe on this one. Expect to see more bogus, hopeful claims made against Apple in the coming weeks.

(Via CNN)

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