Google, Apple, and Microsoft All Being Sued

Posted by jonathan at 10:04pm EST on 12/26/2008

The latest law suit brought to Google’s doorstep is not targeted specifically at Google, but three of the major players in the industry. All three, Google, Apple, and Microsoft, are being sued by a small firm out of Michigan.

This law suit came as an early Christmas present, on Christmas Eve. Here’s a short quote from Macworld, who originally covered the story.

Cygnus Systems sued the three companies on Wednesday saying that they infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which allow users to view preview images of documents on the computer. Mac OS X, the iPhone and Safari also infringe, the company said in court filings. Apple uses this technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the filings state.

While Cygnus has sued three very high profile companies, there may not be the only vendors in Cygnus’s sites. “They were a logical starting place for us,” said Matt McAndrews, a partner with the Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, law firm, which is representing Cygnus. “We’ve identified many other potentially infringing products that we’re investigating,” he added.

Cygnus’ patent was recently awarded to them and now they are trying to go after the big companies to get every penny they can.

It really frustrates me that people working for companies like this, have so much extra time on their hands that all they do is go around and sue companies for minor patents that they think could be worth millions.

There is so many productive things that could be done instead of just suing the big companies.

Sigh.