UK firm suing Fingerworks / Apple over patent 5,730,165

[Hobart]

From http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=28606

Firm fingers Apple over pointing tech
By INQUIRER staff: Thursday 29 December 2005, 14:24
A UK COMPANY filed a lawsuit against Apple and Fingerworks just before Christmas alleging the companies had breached a patent it owns.
Quantum Technology Management Ltd, a UK company based in Haywards Heath, alleges Fingerworks and Apple breached patent number 5,730,165 - Time Domain Capacitive Field Detector, granted on the 24th of March 1998 to a Harald Philipp and subsequently acquired by Quantum.


...could this legal threat have prompted Fingerworks to seek acquisition by a firm better able to handle a legal attack?

I'm thinking that they typo'ed the exact patent number, that patent seems to be about a touchpad control for a sink ??

[The00Dustin]

Interesting... Does this company know that Apple acquired Fingerworks, or are they trying to sue Fingerworks as a separate entity? (Did Apple acquire Fingerworks, or had Fingerworks previously licensed the technology to Apple?) From the looks of the patent, I would think the lawsuit is frivolous, but I didn't read much of it, so I could be wrong. If Apple acquired Fingerworks and already used the technology, then what did they use it for? Their lame two finger mouse pad? That sucks. I guess we'll ride it out and see what happens. I'd guess that all of the information from the court proceedings will be public domain, if anyone knows how to get ahold of them...

[ivanw]

At a glance what I think is that they should not toss off publicly, youngster could see them and adults must show the way to go. Should they win, I'll have to adapt. So, I am going to claim ownership of the idea consisting to breathe in order to stay alive.

Mental illness is a must nowadays to keep up with mainstream events. Lawyers are in charge of deciding what is real and what is illusion. Even engineers submit their work to them. The law of physics have to comply with what humans(*) have forged 13.5 billions years after the beginning of the story. Amazing, it's like in an average TV series, you'll always be wrong at guessing who is guilty. It would be boring if we could guess right.

The secret is to put stupidity in charge because wisdom has less degrees of freedom (they can't use bulshit). Then, with the collusion of those who enforce the law, they can change how things used to go until now. Next year will see humanity taking control. Human laws are going to assimilate laws of physics, Get prepared for the next episode!

What is funny here is that I don't know whether FW did still Quantum Technology's technology or not. Furthermore I don't care because truth is irrelevant in this matter as long as you are the winner! And I am the winner, I am the king, the customer who did not buy any Quantum gizmo.

* sort of marketing and financial wizards (either predator or pray)

update:
I come back here to say that I kind of liked the story of a mayonnaise jar by Quantum. It looks like they had some second thought while confiscating the usage of capacitors from the world. They are trying to compensate with a humanitarian contribution web page.
It is at the end of this page that I found this story: Capacitance Explained. Hurry up before they decide to remove it and classify the whole electrostatic thing.
Other Articles are worth reading too.

After looking some videos I must recognize that they are doing a good job and I can understand that they might have reasons to be afraid of what Westerman and Elias could do with Apple's support.

[VaderPi]

It would be nice to finally know what company we can start bugging to put these devices back on the market.

Can you believe that I almost cried when I thought that my TouchStream was broken forever? It is only a keyboard, but it has become so much more to me. I want others to become just as crazy about it as I am. I want the devices back on the market. I want to know what CEO I need to petition to make that happen.

I hope that this lawsuit helps with that just a little bit.

[ivanw]

I quite agree, all the skills that each of us had to develop is at risk and it rates over the 350$ of the device, eBay can tell about that We should organize a community to care about psychological injuries that are certain to occur with time.

I knew I should not have bought this keyboard because I used to smoke and I had a hard time when I had to stop last years... I should never have started in the first place.

We are all doomed

[Rqyteqto]

I wonder if we could file a class action suit under ADA auspices as the use of the keyboards is addictive and it's loss results in serious physical and psychological damage to persons already dependent on the boards and thus suffering from a disability.

I am not sure who the defendent should be but that matters little, just find the deepest pockets with the most paranoid law department.

We could offer to settle for lifetime support of our keyboards, including replacements as necessary. Also want to add in active R&D to improve the product to prevent the adverse effects of tolerance buildup. As everyone knows, the more you use an addictive drug the less effect a given amount has so you have to continually increase the dosage. For us, that would be akin to increasing and expanding the capabilities of the keyboards.

Who wants to sign up?

[VaderPi]

Now it just sounds like you two are picking on me

[ivanw]

[Rqyteqto]

Never!

[ken gray]

I say we all meet at Mac World Expo and give Steve Jobs an Old School Beat Down till he signs a contract to release a new version of the keyboard with enhancements we should have had over the past year and a half and give us the new model as a peace offering (cuz if Apple does nothing else right, THEY SURE GOT STYLE DOWN IN ACES!).

[goldfish]

I say we all meet at Mac World Expo and give Steve Jobs an Old School Beat Down till he signs a contract to release a new version of the keyboard with enhancements we should have had over the past year and a half and give us the new model as a peace offering (cuz if Apple does nothing else right, THEY SURE GOT STYLE DOWN IN ACES!).

Macworld. San Francisco--January 9-13, 2006. It's gotta happen.

[thenn]

Sorry, I won't be able to go. Not enough in my budget. Please *kick* Apple's CEO in the head for me too!

[Captain_Obvious]

Ok, you do realize that these are two different lawsuits, one against Apple for their dual finger mouse (which we have determined has no FW tech) and a seperate one against FW. Sorry, but this was just another red herring.

[goldfish]

Ok, you do realize that these are two different lawsuits, one against Apple for their dual finger mouse (which we have determined has no FW tech) and a seperate one against FW. Sorry, but this was just another red herring.

Really?

A UK COMPANY filed a lawsuit against Apple and Fingerworks...The filing alleges that components made by Fingerworks when combined with the products of Apple use a technique covered by the patent.

Are we reading the same article? Also, we know that Fingerworks sold the "fundamental patents" last winter. We also know that Apple dumped synaptics trackpads for a trackpad developed in-house, which provided two-finger scrolling, last February. We also know that immediately after the release of the new trackpad, there were problems, and at that precise time Fingerworks staff became quite busy. It seems likely that the hardware and/or software portions of versions of the scrolling trackpad technology released since then contain FW tech.

In any event, the MacBook trackpad is gradually getting bigger, maybe in the next release it will swallow up the keyboard

[only120xs]

I posted about this in the other thread before I saw this one.. guess I'm a little slow

At this point I'm convinced it was Apple who bought Fingerworks... about the growing trackpad size, the new MacBook also has a larger one... anyone know if it's the same size as the Pro or is it even bigger?

[ivanw]

FingerWorks, Apple & Quantum Technology Management - next episode:

Apple 10-Q: thirteen new lawsuits, nine settled
@ New Lawsuits