TabletKiosk Speaks Out on the Typhoon Touch Lawsuit

Many folks have been following the news lately about the Typhoon Touch lawsuit that has named TabletKiosk, Apple, Dell, Fujitsu, and Panasonic as defendants. Motion Computing and Electrovaya have apparently settled with Typoon Touch.

By way of TabletKiosk’s Mobility Matters blog,  Martin Smekal, TabletKiosk’s CEO, has decided to speak publicly about the lawsuit and offers some intriguing insight:

“After conferring with our attorneys, we are confident that Typhoon’s claim of owning the patent to “portable touch-screen computing” is without merit. Because mobile touch screen technology has been around since the 1980s, we feel that this is a frivolous lawsuit and that Typhoon Touch Technologies claim of ownership has no warrant whatsoever. We intend to fight this case to the end.”

“Based on the way our Supreme Court has previously ruled, I think that the Typhoon Touch Technologies lawsuit will be invalidated. In 2007, in the case of KSR vs. Teleflex, the Supreme Court voted against Teleflex’s ownership of “obvious technology”. The court’s decision involved an area of patent law that dealt with whether an invention is obvious and hence, not patentable.”

"Typhoon Touch Technologies acquired their patents out of bankruptcy court and is trying to expand the coverage that the original patent owner and applicant, Microslate, Inc. applied for in 1997.”

“TabletKiosk fully respects and value the intricacies and merits of patent law and licensing, which protect new inventions and emerging technologies and intellectual properties. In fact, some of these licenses are key components of our products. However, in this case, I do not consider the umbrella grouping of mobile touch screen technology to be a concrete asset that can be owned by one person or group.”

“I was shocked to see that they made this claim in their release. We did not and have no intention of entering into settlement talks with Typhoon. Yes, our attorney contacted their lawyers to explain our defense; however, Typhoon immediately rejected our claim, and we never discussed settlement.

“I find it interesting that the two companies that “settled” with Typhoon, Motion Computing and Electrovaya, do not currently offer mobile touch screen solutions. How do you settle on something that you do not sell?”