Apple Sued Over iPhone Web Browsing Tech

The iPhone has drawn a lot a lot of attention from consumers --- and plaintiffs. The latest lawsuit to be filed against Apple's immensely popular device was filed on Monday by law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro (JMBM) on the behalf of EMG Technology, LLC against Apple Inc. in the District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the Tyler Division.

The lawsuit involves a patent which was just issued on Oct. 21, 2008, regarding:

Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content.

It appears that patent number 7,441,196 centers around technology for displaying websites on mobile device screens, such as the iPhone. The inventors are Elliot Gottfurcht, Grane Gottfurcht, and Albert-Michel Long, all of California; EMC Technology appears to be a holding company.

The press release posted by EMG Technology says:

EMG Managing Member Elliot Gottfurcht is one of the named inventors of five U.S. patents for navigating the Internet on mobile devices and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Issued on October 21, 2008, the ‘196 patent includes 76 claims, which are supported by specifications filed in 1999 by Mr. Gottfurcht and others.

JMBM partner and IP expert, Stanley Gibson, explains that "the '196 patent 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,” says Mr. Gibson. “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.”

Why pick on Apple, as there are many other companies with similar technology? Well, the sales numbers probably have something to do with it, as well as the fact that the patent mentions zooming and scrolling, something that Mobile Safari handles quite while with a flick of your fingers.

JMBM made sure to toot its own horn, by including in the press release information about their big win vs. Medtronic. In fact, Stanley Gibson was one of the lead trial attorneys from JMBM who successfully prosecuted Gary Michelson's patent infringement lawsuit against Medtronic, which resulted in a $570 million verdict.

Naturally Apple won't comment on pending litigation.