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Apple sued over iPhone keyboard

SP Technologies has sued Apple claiming that it came up with the idea of a touch-screen keyboard long ago.

Tom Krazit Former Staff writer, CNET News
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Google, as the most prominent company on the Internet defends its search juggernaut while expanding into nearly anything it thinks possible. He has previously written about Apple, the traditional PC industry, and chip companies. E-mail Tom.
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Tom Krazit

The first iPhone lawsuit might have been somewhat laughable, but the second one may be a little more serious.

An outfit called SP Technologies has sued Apple over the touch-screen keyboard at the heart of the iPhone, claiming Apple is infringing on a patent held by SP Technologies for a similar keyboard. AppleInsider dug up the SP patent filing from 2000, which claims the company developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area."

Apple was sued last week by a company claiming a patent on touch-screen keyboards. Corinne Schulze/CNET Networks

Patent suits, of course, are a dime a dozen, and Apple's not exactly the first company to ever use a touch-screen style input method. But this one will probably require more effort to defend than the iPhone battery suit filed a few weeks ago. The suit was filed Thursday in Tyler, Texas, which has become the destination of choice for patent suits these days.

An Apple representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but it's unlikely Apple would have much to say at this stage.