It seems like it's a never ending battle in this high-tech world. BetaNews is reporting that Typhoon has just reworked a lawsuit against Dell to also include HTC, Apple, Toshiba, Lenovo, Fujitsu, and Panasonic over their patents #5,379,057, and #5,675,362 issued in 1995 and 1997. Both patents share the title "Portable Computer with Touch Screen and Computer System employing Same," and have practically identical abstracts. Typhoon is alleging that HTC and the other manufacturers named in the case, knowingly and willingly infringed upon their patents. Typhoon has already settles with a few other companies over their touch screen products. I'm sure we'll see a few rounds of settlements with Typhoon before the end of the year, followed by licensing agreements. What does this mean for us who love these touch screen devices? HTC will have to either swallow a few extra dollars in producing every touch screen device or they'll end up passing the extra cost onto us.
