Apple Sued Over iPhone Keyboard Patent

Come out with a new groundbreaking product and expect the inevitable law suits.  The iPhone, for good or ill, is one such product.  The latest suit, filed in plaintiff friendly U.S. District Court in Tyler, Texas, claims the iPhone touch pad keyboard violates a patent held by one Peter V. Boesen.  He applied for the patent in August, 2000 and received it in August, 2004. 

His patent claim, to wit revolves around:

the graphical keyboard placed in a set position; persistently maintaining the graphical keyboard on the touch screen display such that the user cannot move, resize, remove, or close the graphical keyboard through the user interface while the input area remains and requires input.

This comes on top of the guy who claims the battery replacement policy wasn't disclosed by Apple prior to sale.  HP and IBM did a lot of work on touch screens in the late 80s onward.  Some of that technology must have involved virtual keyboards at some point.  Sounds like the same technology in current ATMs and voting machines.  If there ever was a reason for patent reform, this is it.  Oh, and Doctor Boesen (yes, M.D.) was just sentenced to 51 months in prison for health care fraud.  Most of the batteries in the initial iPhone release should be dead by the time he gets out of prison.  He's currently out at large pending appeal.

Stories are in Wired News, Tech Spot, and Information Week.

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