Trio of patent suits target Apple over caller ID, Web apps, USB

By Neil Hughes

Source: www.appleinsider.com

pple was hit with three different patent infringement lawsuits in the U.S. this week, accusing the company of violating inventions related to caller ID, browser-based Web applications, and for building "USB products."

ClassCo v. Apple

New Hampshire-based ClassCo, makers of the "VoiceAnnounce Caller ID" products, filed suit this week against Apple, alleging patent infringement over caller identification patents owned by the company. Also named as defendants are HTC, Samsung, Hewlett-Packard, LG, Research in Motion, Huawei, and ZTE.

Filed in U.S. District Court for the Norther District of Illinois, the complaint accuses Apple and the others of violating two patents related to "announcement" of a calling party. The company has previously sued Motorola and Kyocera International.

The two patents owned by ClassCo and included in the suit are both titled "Calling Party Announcement Apparatus." Both were granted to inventor David J. Luneau. They are:

    U.S. Patent No. 6,970,695, awarded in 2005
    U.S. Patent No. 7,206,572, awarded in 2007


ClassCo seeks compensatory damages for what it believes are past infringements by the defendants. It has also asked the court to file an injunction preventing products like the iPhone from continuing their alleged infringement.


Source : http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/09/09/trio_of_patent_suits_target_apple_over_caller_id_web_apps_usb.html