Apple sued over iPhone keyboard

The substantive aspect of the patent is that it provides a virtual keyboard to the user with LESS functionality than other virtual keyboards that are described in prior art. It can't be moved, resized or hidden.

When patents are granted for existing technologies MINUS a feature or features then the fault lies with the examiner and the process.

I hope he is responsible for the costs of defending the case for both parties.

Looks like the patenting system has become a way sue people for being innovative. So let's all make phony patents and see if someone made a product out of it so we could sue it for a pile of money

Prior art, eh?

Well, let's see. The Newton came out 1993.

Soft keyboard was included (it was John Sculley's preferred entry method, and a lot of other people's once they realized Newtown Handwriting Recognition version 1.0 kept inputting Eat Up Martha. Version 2.0 aka "Rosetta" was really good, but the product was dead by then).

Case closed. Next case: someone suing Apple for using the color black.

What's next? A lawsuit over the clickwheel because someone filed a patent for a "navagational device for an MP3 Player?"

Of interest is that the person who brought the suit is a convicted felon currently appealing case in which he was slammed on fraud. See here:

http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/14490/

The comment about virtual keyboards being around for years is right, but I wonder if anyone has filed a patent for it. Otherwise, there's a ton of companies that will be sued for this feature. Someone will likely state prior art, but it has to beat their specific caveat of the user not being able to resize or close it until the data field is entered. PalmOS comes to my mind as prior art and I'm sure there's a lot older stuff out there.

SP Technologies must be one of those IP holding companies because the original patent was awarded to a pair of inventors from Iowa and Nebraska.

For details on the patent go to USPTO.gov and search on patent number 6,784,873 if the following link doesn't work.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6,784,873.PN.&OS=PN/6,784,873&RS=PN/6,784,873

The comment about virtual keyboards being around for years is right, but I wonder if anyone has filed a patent for it. Someone will likely state prior art, but it has to beat their specific caveat of the user not being able to resize or close it until the data field is entered. PalmOS comes to my mind as prior art and I'm sure there's a lot older stuff out there.

For details on the patent go to USPTO.gov and search on patent number 6,784,873 if the following link doesn't work.

http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=6,784,873.PN.&OS=PN/6,784,873&RS=PN/6,784,873

I would think the suit is over the "make the letter appear above the finger when pressing the button" aspect of the keyboard.

And yes, Apple seems to give as often as they get.

See for yourself if the keyboard sucks http://hotcellfish.com/freeiphone.html

Virtual keyboards have been around for years. My ReplayTV has one. What's the patent, and won't it get tossed in a challenge due to prior art?