BOSTON (Reuters) -Apple Inc is the target of a lawsuit that claims a technology theiPhone uses to surf the Web infringes on a patent filed by Los Angelesreal estate developer Elliot Gottfurcht and two co-inventors.
The lawsuit was filed by EMG Technology LLC on Monday in the U.S.District Court in Tyler, Texas. EMG was founded by Gottfurcht, is basedin Los Angeles with an office in Tyler, and has just one employee.
The suit alleges that the technology the iPhone uses to navigate anddisplay some websites designed for small phone screens infringes on apatent obtained last month by Gottfurcht and his co-inventors andassigned to EMG.
Apple spokeswoman Susan Lundgren declined to comment on the lawsuit,saying that the Cupertino, California-based company does not discusspending litigation.
EMG has not considered suing companies such as HTC Corp, maker ofthe G1 Google phone, and Research in Motion Ltd, maker of theBlackBerry, which also produce devices that can display mobilewebsites, according to Gottfurcht’s lawyer Stanley Gibson, a partnerwith the Los Angeles law firm Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro.
Mobile websites are essentially reformatted versions of ordinarywebsites, with their content manipulated to be easily viewed on tinyscreens.
"We haven’t looked at anything other than the iPhone," Gibson toldReuters. "That was the device that we looked at. Obviously it’s verypopular."
Gibson was one of several attorneys who prosecuted a recent patentinfringement case against Medtronic Inc that resulted in a $570 millionverdict for his clients, according to a statement issued by his lawfirm.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle, editing by Richard Chang)
? Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved
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