Qualcomm brandishes Palm patents against Apple, seeks ITC ban on iPhone 8 and iPhone X

Posted:
in General Discussion edited November 2017
Qualcomm on Wednesday continued its legal assault against Apple with a pair of filings alleging infringement of in-house and purchased patents, including intellectual property developed by defunct portable device maker Palm.




In a first complaint lodged with the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California, Qualcomm asserts five patents, four of which originate from Palm. The last piece of IP comes from a patent portfolio formerly held by TouchTable, an arm of tech firm AppliedMinds.

As it applies to former Palm technology, Qualcomm's lawsuit asserts infringement of U.S. Patent Nos. 8,683,362, 8,497,928, 7,844,037 and 9,203,940.

As described in U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filings, the '362 patent describes a card-based multitasking interface that found its way into Palm's webOS, which Qualcomm views as a progenitor of modern smartphone operating systems. Apple's iOS, including the latest iOS 11, relies on similar graphical user interface assets to manage multiple app instances.

Beyond app multitasking, the '928 patent deals with camera focusing techniques, specifically methods of deploying a tap-to-focus system in portable devices that utilize a large screen as a digital viewfinder. The '037 patent describes methods of responding to an incoming call with a text message instead of sending it to voicemail or declining it altogether.

Finally, the '940 patent details a multi-use power button capable of turning a device on and off, silencing incoming calls, activating a display and more. Apple's iPhone devices have incorporated similar features over the years, Qualcomm says, and are thus in infringement of the IP.

The TouchTable patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,665,239, dates back to 2012 when AppliedMinds founders and former Disney employees Daniel Hillis and Bran Ferren dreamed up a large table device with embedded touchscreen.

Dubbed the TouchTable, the equipment was designed to enable collaborative work between two or more users without the need for input accessories like mouse and keyboard hardware. In particular, Hillis and Ferren developed a number of gestures that allowed users to manipulate onscreen images. Most notably, the device understood pinch-to-zoom gestures now common to Apple devices.

In a second complaint, Qualcomm asserts a total of six patents -- U.S. Patent Nos. 8,971,861, 7,834,591 8,768,865, 8,229,043, 8,447,132 and 9,024,418 -- covering a range of technologies from power management to machine learning.

Along with the two lawsuits, which join a third filed earlier yesterday, Qualcomm said it plans to lodge a complaint with the U.S. International Trade Commission today, reports the San Diego Union Tribune. The legal volley arrives just one day after Apple filed its own countersuit claiming Qualcomm's Snapdragon processors infringe on eight owned patents.

General Counsel Don Rosenberg in a statement said today's Qualcomm filings are not a direct rebuttal to Apple's complaint.

"You can't react that quickly to file lawsuits," Rosenberg said. "We were in the process of filing three new district court cases in San Diego today, and one new ITC case in Washington, D.C. Those involve a group of 16 patents that are additional to the ones we have already sued them on, and five of those 16 are ones we are suing them on in the ITC seeking an exclusion order."

Qualcomm in July asked the ITC to ban the import and sale of iPhone 7 and iPad models that allegedly infringe on a set of six patents. Notably, the complaint was limited to devices using Intel modems instead of those built by Qualcomm and its sub-contractors.

With its new ITC complaint, Qualcomm is looking to include Apple's recently released iPhone 8 and iPhone X units in the potential ban. The company is once again limiting scope to devices that use Intel cellular communications hardware.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    tmaytmay Posts: 6,311member
    Qualcomm has put itself in a do or die situation, and, I'm thinking die, mofo.

    Let Broadcom pickup up the body parts for a song.
    jony0jbdragondoozydozenapplesauce007Martin57AirunJaewatto_cobra
  • Reply 2 of 12

    "The TouchTable patent, U.S. Patent No. 8,665,239, dates back to 2012 when AppliedMinds founders ..."

    "... In particular, Hillis and Ferren developed a number of gestures that allowed users to manipulate onscreen images. Most notably, the device understood pinch-to-zoom gestures now common to Apple devices."


    Now common to Apple devices?!  It was common to the iPhone in 2007, and iPad in 2010.

    Likewise, Coverflow predates the Palm tile patent.  This suit is the legal equivalent of a chimp at the zoo flinging it's poo at people.  It creates a time-consuming mess, but won't accomplish anything in the end.


    jbdragondoozydozenAirunJaewatto_cobra
  • Reply 3 of 12
    dewmedewme Posts: 5,332member
    There is an air of sheer panic and desperation in Qualcomm's thrashing and flailing attacks on Apple. They are listing dangerously and don't have a plan to right the ship. Very sad to witness the rapid floundering of a once-proud technology company with lots of great employees who are now doomed to go down with the ship. This is what happens when leadership fails. 
    edited November 2017 jbdragonwatto_cobra
  • Reply 4 of 12
    * shoots themselves in the foot for the nth time *
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 5 of 12
    jbdragonjbdragon Posts: 2,305member
    So I assume Apple is going to go ahead and file a few more Patent lawsuits against Qualcomm.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 6 of 12
    tmay said:
    Qualcomm has put itself in a do or die situation, and, I'm thinking die, mofo.

    Let Broadcom pickup up the body parts for a song.
    Greed can get a person or a company killed very quickly.
    Time will tell
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 7 of 12
    Good luck on that BAN thing, as the government said, too big to fail, or too much money to be made to be banned for cry babies
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 8 of 12
    Rayz2016Rayz2016 Posts: 6,957member
    dewme said:
    There is an air of sheer panic and desperation in Qualcomm's thrashing and flailing attacks on Apple. They are listing dangerously and don't have a plan to right the ship. Very sad to witness the rapid floundering of a once-proud technology company with lots of great employees who are now doomed to go down with the ship. This is what happens when leadership fails. 
    The employees will end up working for Apple or Intel. 
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 9 of 12
    netroxnetrox Posts: 1,415member
    I have to say that Qualcomm may have a case with the card-based multitasking though. I thought of PalmOS when I saw it. What I don't get it though is why can't they just use the Expose like on MacOS? I don't see a reason why it can't be done. 
  • Reply 10 of 12
    wood1208wood1208 Posts: 2,905member
    More counter law suits will be filed. Both companies have lots of money to continue dragging in court. Meanwhile, Apple will continue on it's strategy for in house design/build as many components as possible,
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 11 of 12
    foggyhillfoggyhill Posts: 4,767member
    netrox said:
    I have to say that Qualcomm may have a case with the card-based multitasking though. I thought of PalmOS when I saw it. What I don't get it though is why can't they just use the Expose like on MacOS? I don't see a reason why it can't be done. 
    Only have a case by the fact the patent system is broken, this shouldn't even be a patent (cause such things existed on the desktop first, and it is an obvious variant of existing tech).

    But, even in that broken system, considering what happened in the case of Samsung which had a much more outrageous copy of the whole phone dress, I'd expect a useless 5 year legal battle with a perfunctory amount being won in the end that will satisfy nobody.
    watto_cobra
  • Reply 12 of 12
    dysamoriadysamoria Posts: 3,430member
    When did Qualcomm acquire the Palm assets? They were owned by Access, last i saw (who also owned the BeOS assets, all of which are just going to waste).
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