Apple Sued Over Multitouch; Your iPad Could Get Blocked

iPad Forums

By Evan Selleck

Published: Mar 30 2010 / 05:14 PM

Category: archive

Tags: , , , , ,


Most of you by now are watching UPS like a hawk, patiently waiting for your iPad to make the great trek across the Pacific ocean, to where it will eventually find your doorstep. And, ultimately, your hands. But, not everything is rosy in the Cupertino area, as a fresh new lawsuit may dampen the festivities come this Sunday. Sure, the chances are slim, but we imagine the International Trade Commission takes these things very seriously (it’s there job, after all), and that could mean your weekend with your iPad may have to wait.

“A fundamental patent to the detection of multi-fingers that allows for any subsequent multi-finger applications to be implemented.” That’s how Elan Microelectronics has described their patent for multitouch. The Taiwanese-based company hasn’t gone the “normal” route with this lawsuit, either. Instead of going through the courts, they’ve gone straight to the ITC, and that’s exactly where this might get tricky for Apple. Yes, Elan has been petitioning the courts since April of 2009, and that’s probably why they’ve decided to “up the ante,” so to speak. At this point, the ITC could hinder the importing of the iPad no matter what they decide from the lawsuit itself.

No, it may not happen by Saturday, but considering it’s only Tuesday, there’s a slim possibility that it does. We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that the normal speed of our Federal Government stays at a molasses pace. Then again, it’s Apple related, so that may kick someone in the ITC into gear. We’ll stay on top of the situation, and let you know of any changes. We don’t want our iPads staying in China, now do we?

[via SlashGear]

  1. caps's Avatar caps
    03-30-2010 09:06 PM
    no we dont...
  2. niuniu's Avatar niuniu
    06-23-2011 03:30 AM
    Like they say about elections, the only "poll" that matters is what people actually DO, not what they say they will do.A week ago, I was hopeful that the new Verizon iPhone would be an improvement in some way over what I had (AT&T 3GS). Maybe it would be a speed bump or increased storage. I fully expected I would be paying my AT&T early termination fee and switching.The reality? For me, moving to VZW would be a lateral move, at best. Their pricing is identical, their coverage (for me) is equivalent, and the lack of international roaming and simultaneous voice and data are major turn-offs. So I bought an unsubsidized, no-commitment AT&T iPhone 4 instead. Works great, happy customer. If something better comes along in the spring I can flip this and get it, or wait for LTE with no strings. convert mpeg4 to mp3 Good comparison, Allyson. I use last pass because most passwords I have to remember logins. Laspass premium is $ 12 per year, and I get the iPhone and functionality of browser plug-ins provided. It also has a built-in browser, so I log into a site from the iPhone App.