Thoman Ross sues Apple $10 billion, claims he invented iPhone

[Ink]

Man who claims he invented iPhone in 1992 sues Apple for $10bn

"A Florida man has accused Apple of infringing a 1992 patent on an “electronic reading device” that, in our view, looks nothing like the iPhone. He’s asking for $10 billion in damages. No, this isn’t an article from The Onion. It’s real life.

Thomas Ross included drawings of his device, a boxy rectangle with a screen and physical keyboard, in his court filing in Florida Southern District Court, which was obtained by The Telegraph. As you may recall, the original iPhone was the first smartphone without a physical keyboard. No matter, Ross says he was the first person “to have created a novel combination of media and communication tools.”

As well as the $10 billion-plus, Ross claims he is owed "a reasonable royalty" of 1.5pc of all of Apple's future sales. Given that Apple made $235 billion in revenue last year, that would be another $3.5bn or so a year."​

Images from The Telegraph.

 

[hjlbx]

That means Blackberry and every other phone with a keyboard - both physical and on-screen - would be a patent infringement.

The guy chose the wealthiest target -- obviously...

 

[jamescv7]

Well that is not impossible, remember that touch screen based are still in the premature way back before and mostly are proposal concepts.

But in that sense, likely coincidence since that patent of Mr.Ross was rejected because of inadequate expenses, so a moral of the story is exert a lot of effort top achieve something unique.

You discover something? ---> Go ahead to patent it ----> Financial problems? Make a plan to have donations and other ways.

---------------------------------------------
People mentality is to give up easily when everything came to be impossible however not really.

 

[hjlbx]

How are you going to sue someone from something you did back in 1992?

The statute of limitations for patent infringement is 6 years.

Apple will also probably pursue what is called in the U.S. the "Doctrine of Laches" or "Sleeping on your patent rights."

It will go badly for the plaintiff...