Biz (2599)

Apple faces touchscreen legal battle

Sued by Elan over alleged patent infringement

8 April 2009 16:13 GMT / By Amy-Mae Elliott

Apple is facing a new patent infringement lawsuit over touchscreens. Taiwanese company Elan Microelectronics has sued Apple via a San Francisco court.

"We couldn't find a common viewpoint with Apple, so we decided we had to take action", an Elan company spokesperson told The New York Times, revealing that licensing talks had been going on for 2 years.

The lawsuit argues that MacBooks, iPhones and the iPod touch use technology that infringes on two of Elan's patents.

Elan, that provides touchpads for Asus' Eee range, forced a company called Synaptics into a similar settlement recently, leading industry commentators to suggest they will be "confident" going into this latest legal battle.

Full tags

Biz, Lawsuits, Apple, Elan, Synaptics