In March 2015, Thomas Ross
sent a cease and desist demand to Apple CEO Tim Cook, claiming the company has
been stealing his design.
The Florida man named
Thomas Ross claims he and not Steve Jobs created the iPhone and the iPad, and
wants Apple to pay him $10 billion for stealing his idea. Thomas, who has sued
Apple Inc. cited his sketches from 1992 as evidence that he was the
revolutionary genius behind the iPhone.
The drawings/ sketches show
a rectangle with a screen on it, and was sketched 15 years before the iPhone’s
debut in 2007.
The sketches bear some
resemblance to Apple’s device, but if we were to judge the case by these
standards, Ross can also claim to have invented the Kindle, the personal
digital assistant and the Nintendo DS as they all have a rectangle shape with a
screen on it.
In the second drawing, is a
clamshell model with touchscreens on both sides and a stylus, which resembles
Nintendo’s handheld system.
Ross pitched these as
“electronic reading devices” in his 1992 patent request, which was abandoned in
1995 after he failed to pay the application fee.
“The device, constituting
the invention, is a computerized, electronic reading device, the purpose of
which is to provide an alternative to paper-based print-media such as books,
magazines, manuscripts and news media,” Ross wrote in his patent request.
The lawsuit called Apple’s
devices “ERD looka-like units,” claiming his idea was the original. He’s
demanding Apple destroy all “copies and knock-offs” that the company created.
“Any pursuit of claims against Apple in light
of these facts would be baseless and objectively unreasonable,” Apple legal
counsel Jeffrey Lasker wrote in response.
Source: NYdailyNews
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