Apple Sued due to iPhone having a Camera

Seriously, it appears that nothing changes over at Apple Legal. Yet again they are being sued, this time by a company called St. Clair Intellectual Property Consultants. They claim that Apple's iPhone infringes on four digital camera patents that the company holds. The four include the †˜459, †˜219, †˜010 and †˜899 patents.



I don't know much about law, but this seems utterly ridiculous. What I don't understand is how these even become patents in the first place. You'd think that something like this could be used against any number of digital photography products.

It appears St. Clair has been playing this game of patent infringement lawsuit for quite some time. In 2001, it sued Sony for infringing these same patents and won a $25 million judgement against the company. In 2003, it sued Canon and was awarded $34 million in damages. This just absolutely blows my mind. Not only are they playing this ridiculous game, they are actually winning! WTF!?

Now it's Apple's turn. Will they pay up or fight for the sake of justice? Discuss below.

Via. MacWorld, TUAW

SH Mirror

This is nothing new, really. Everyone is sue happy when they see the opportunity, so I'm not surprised to see this happen. As for winning, it not a matter of who's right or wrong when it comes to court. It's about who can make up the most BS and come on top. As long as St. Clair has the right paper work, and maybe some "proof", they'll win their case. We'll see how Apple handles the matter. I'd be happy to see St. Clair get a nice smack in the face, but I don't know...

Technically it's not "pushing a button" but rather "sending electrical pulses through your finger to cause the iphone to detect a mass over the area that activates the camera functionalities"

So basically they sue any company that ever makes a digital camera. Thats messed up.

I find it amusing that you used "Fight for the sake of justice" when referring to Apple. :P

But they're not entirely out of line, considering that the company DOES hold the patents. On the other hand, they're doing jack shit with them, and shouldn't be suing everyone THIS LATE IN THE GAME about making digital cameras.

Once Apple pays up they should stop.

Might as well patent a product that "works according to some sort of physical law". and sue everything for patent infringement.

While I don't agree that certain technological advances should be patented themselves, but rather products related to them, but what is law is law. St. Clair has the full rights to sue a lot of people with that.

Apple had better just pay them off or they will get sued, lose, and have to pay even more in grievance damages.

Heh, but even you know who the wrong one is here.



Yeah, they'll probably have to pay up in the end. Canon only makes cameras and they still lost.

I'm just saying this whole thing is stupid.

This company is full of geniuses. By making such broad patents, they get to fuck over any digital camera companies. Free money. I support them.

That quote right there describes every single digital camera that has been developed with a screen on it.

Mainly I'm saying unless this company is claiming they invented the damn digital camera they should just shut up.

Anyone know how long these patents are good for? Based on how basic they are in concept, I'm surprised they were filed later than very early 1980s, as I'm sure that even at that time there were people were imagining digital cameras weighing 20-30lbs needing to to be mounted on a tripod with a 2tone screen requiring the press of a button to activate...

And I took a look at wikipedia:


It's amazing and retarded that such patents are valid, given that a substantial portion of the initial legwork was done more than 10 years prior to the most oldest valid patents.

Exactly my point.

I just realized that because of patent 495 and 010 they can pretty much sue any company with cameras that haven't gone through them...that's fucked up dood...talk about an uber monopoly

Sony and Canon already fell victim, didn't they?

This is the part where Patents fail.

Man, they know how to get their money. But those are some ridiculous patents. If they can do that, I want to patent Happiness.

I'm probably going to bet that Apple will lose, just because Sony and Canon had already lost.

Does this mean that I can patent physical objects that aid in human lifestyles?

Well, I think I'll patent breathing then. :|

I am going to patent pooping.

Id love to see the script for how this court case rolls out. I can't help but be baffled by what I see there. I mean, really, wtf