EMG Technology has filed a patent suit against Apple in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas.

The suit alleges that Apple is infringing on U.S. Patent No. 7,441,196 in the way the iPhone navigates the Web. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages against Apple.

“Web sites are just beginning to develop their mobile sister sites for fast and easy navigation,” said Stanley Gibson, an intellectual property expert and partner at the law firm of Jeffer, Mangels, Butler & Marmaro, which filed the lawsuit on behalf of EMG Technology.

Gibson offers the example of NBC. To access NBC on a computer, the URL is NBC.com. For the mobile site on the iPhone, the URL would be m.NBC.com. EMG’s patent, he explained, covers the simplified interface of reformatted mobile subject matter to supply optimum viewing and navigation with separate touches on a small screen.

Seventy-Six Patent Claims

EMG’s Elliot Gottfurcht is one of the named inventors of five U.S. patents

for navigating the Web on mobile devices and World Wide Web Protocol Television. Gottfurcht is additionally a real-estate developer in West Los Angeles.

The patent was issued on October 21, 2008, and includes 76 claims supported by specifications filed in 1999 by Gottfurcht and others, according to the plaintiff’s law firm.

Gibson explains that the “patent claim covers the display of World Wide Web subject matter reformatted from HTML to XML on mobile devices — the industry standard currently displayed by the iPhone. Additional patent claims include the technology for manipulating a region of the screen for zooming and scrolling.”

Gibson has a good track record in IP litigation. He was one of the lead attorneys who successfully prosecuted the patent-infringement lawsuit of Gary Michelson, M.D., against Medtronic. That suit resulted in a $570 million verdict. Dr. Michelson received a $1.35 billion payment from Medtronic.

Apple’s Business Decision

Despite Gibson’s winning record, it may…

Original post by dhiram