Apple is on the receiving end of a lawsuit now after Droplets Inc. decided to file a patent infringement lawsuit, where this lawsuit hurls accusations at the company of violating patents that are related to interactive links to applications on its website, movie trailer site and iTunes. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Eastern Texas, which is a district that is famous for rapid resolution in favor of rights holders in infringement cases, and amongst Droplets’ impressive client list are IBM, Borland and PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Founded in March 2000, Droplets has the goal of meeting the needs of “enterprises who seek more efficient ways to deliver highly functional and scalable applications over the Internet.” The patent that led to the lawsuit? U.S. Patent No. 6,687,745, entitled “System and method for delivering a graphical user interface of remote applications over a thin bandwidth connection.” According to Droplet, this invention functions as a method for remotely delivering “interactive links for presenting applications”, where the patent was granted in February eleven years ago.
Apple’s movie trailer site, iTunes as well as numerous other web applications directly violate the patent according to Droplets, hence the lawsuit. I wonder with all these patent lawsuits flying around, will innovation be stifled? Surely a line must be drawn somewhere, otherwise we would just be throwing lawsuits at one another to no end, leaving other countries to overtake us in the end in terms of innovation and creativity. The ball is in your court now, Apple.