Wednesday, June 29, 2016
A Florida man named Thomas Ross claims he and not Steve Jobs created the
iPhone and the iPad, and wants Apple to pay him $10 billion for
stealing his idea. Thomas, who has sued Apple Inc. cited his sketches
from 1992 as evidence that he was the revolutionary genius behind the
iPhone.
The drawings/ sketches show a rectangle with a screen on it, and was sketched 15 years before the iPhone’s debut in 2007.
The
sketches bear some resemblance to Apple’s device, but if we were to
judge the case by these standards, Ross can also claim to have invented
the Kindle, the personal digital assistant and the Nintendo DS as they
all have a rectangle shape with a screen on it.
In
the second drawing, is a clamshell model with touchscreens on both
sides and a stylus, which resembles Nintendo’s handheld system.
Ross
pitched these as “electronic reading devices” in his 1992 patent
request, which was abandoned in 1995 after he failed to pay the
application fee.
“The device,
constituting the invention, is a computerized, electronic reading
device, the purpose of which is to provide an alternative to paper-based
print-media such as books, magazines, manuscripts and news media,” Ross
wrote in his patent request.
The lawsuit
called Apple’s devices “ERD looka-like units,” claiming his idea was the
original. He’s demanding Apple destroy all “copies and knock-offs” that
the company created.
In March 2015, Ross sent a cease and desist demand to Apple CEO Tim Cook, claiming the company has been stealing his design.
“Any
pursuit of claims against Apple in light of these facts would be
baseless and objectively unreasonable,” Apple legal counsel Jeffrey
Lasker wrote in response.
Source: NYdailyNews
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