Apple Inc.(NASDAQ:AAPL) has become the target of yet another lawsuit. A Pennsylvania man claimed the tech giant infringed upon his patent for web carousels. Samuel Lit, a Pennsylvania resident, is suing the Cupertino-based giant over a 2008 patent covering web carousel technology and is seeking royalties.
How Apple infringes on Lit’s patent?
According to Lit, the design of the Apple.com homepage, which cycles through a variety of different products, infringes upon his patent. As per Apple Insider, the patent in question is for “Information display system and method, which includes claims that describe elements of a display engine configured to deliver carousel content from a server to a webpage.” In addition, the patent covers a database comprised of both storage and retrieval functionally for financial and statistical information in respect to the content displayed on the carousel.
Lit specifically targets Apple.com, saying that the site “includes a display carousel embedded in the site and contains five display windows configured to display content and revolve at a predetermined rate of speed.” The five windows displayed in the carousel were for Swift Playgrounds, iOS 10, watchOS, macOS Sierra, and WWDC 2016 at the time of the filing, Lit said.
The carousel now features banners for the iPad Pro, MacBook, Apple Watch and the iPhone 6s. Lit argues that the tech giant infringed upon his patent because the information is passed instantly between the said display carousel and display engine.
Lit seeks “reasonable” royalty with maximum interest rate
Lit is an avid radio broadcaster and often works with network audio solutions and hosts a live-streaming radio show. Previously, Lit attempted to monetize the patent via a website he created: YourDisplayCarousel.com. However, the site was closed down in December. Lit said that from this lawsuit, he wants a judgment that Apple directly infringed upon his patent. Also he is asking for a reasonable royalty with interest at the maximum rate allowed by law.
In June, a patent claim was brought against Apple by a Florida man who claimed the iPhone maker infringed upon a patent application he made in 1992 for sketches of an electronic reading device. The Florida man failed to pay the registration fee and thus never actually received the patent, but he is still seeking $10 billion from the tech giant.
As for Lit’s case, we will continue to keep you updated about the lawsuit, but it seems that a lot of other websites will be the target of this same web carousel lawsuit. The tech giant has not commented on the matter yet.
