lawsuits

St Clair Intellectual Property Consultants is suing Apple over claims that the company is infringing on patents it owns relating to digital still cameras. The company apparently has a history of patent litigation and Apple looks to be just the next target on the list, as Apple currently uses still digital cameras in the original iPhone and the iPhone 3G. The iPhone 3GS, iPod nano, and Mac computers all include digital cameras capable of capturing video.

Apple and AT&T get to tackle yet another class action lawsuit regarding delayed MMS support on American iPhone. This time, the case's plaintiff, Alabama resident Clyde Franklin, has charged both Apple and AT&T of misleading the public on MMS availability, with promises that it would become an option on the iPhone 3G and 3GS with the arrival of the v3.0 firmware. It did not, and Franklin notes that only a small disclaimer on the Apple website made mention that AT&T support would only come in "late summer."

Recently, both Apple and AT&T found themselves named in two class action lawsuits regarding the current lack of MMS support for the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS. iPhone OS 3.0 includes support for MMS, but so far AT&T hasn't enabled the feature and apparently at least some iPhone owners feel that they've been misled per an article on the Mac Observer.

The mother of a child in Cincinnati is suing Apple and the 10 employees that sold her an iPod Touch for her son after the device allegedly exploded in his pants pocket while he sat in school, burning through his cloths and inflicting some serious burns. The mother is seeking $75,000 in compensatory damages and $75,000 in punitive damages and attorney fees.

Piscal Technologies, a developer of mobile software, is suing Apple in a Delaware federal district court, claiming that the graphic renderer in the iPhone and iPod touch infringes on several of their patents. They say the technology Apple used to speed up zooming and panning for images, documents and websites was borrowed from them by Apple without their permission.

Yet another lawsuit has been filed against Apple concerning the representation of the data speeds of the iPhone 3G in their latest TV ads. This suit, which was filed by Sames Pittman on November 26, 2008 in the United States District Court, Northern District of California, San Jose Division, accuses the iPhone of being a defective product, blaming 3G speeds on a faulty chipset and/or firmware.

EMG Technology filed a lawsuit against Apple earlier today on the grounds that web-browsing technology used in the iPhone infringes upon one of their patents in the way it navigates the internet. The U.S. patent (number 7,441,196), which was filed March 13, 2008 and granted on October 31st of the same year, is for an "Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content."

Apple and AT&T are facing yet another lawsuit against them for the performance of the iPhone 3G on AT&T's network. This one says their data speeds are much lower than advertised, much like a previous lawsuit claimed as well. This one also accuses them of ignoring the hairline cracks developing in the plastic back plate of iPhone 3Gs.

Apple is filing a motion to dismiss the lawsuit from back in August that accused the company of selling defective iPhone 3Gs. The suit was filed by Alabama resident Jessica Smith when her new iPhone 3G was only able to connect to AT&T's 3G network 25% of the time and experienced excessive dropped calls.

Here's a refreshing change of pace. We've heard a lot lately about indie app developers being sued or threatened with legal action from large corporations. Generally speaking, the most common result is the developer bending to the will of the company, whether it means making them change their app or having Apple remove it. This time developer Hottrix is turning the tables, suing Coors for $12.5 million.