This patent was issued by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in February 2003 and the patent number is 6520699.
Japanese entrepreneur Toshiyasu Abe has been working on invention for almost his entire life. At the beginning of the 21st century, he devoted a lot of time and resources to the development and promotion of a user interface device that was very novel at the time. This patent was called 'KEYBOARD'.
The patent document describes that it is a user interface device consisting of buttons displayed on a touch screen, and each button is associated with a plurality of letters or functions. When the user touches or taps the button, the device will display The associated letter or function of the button. The device can also detect the force applied and the direction of movement. The user can enter the corresponding letter or activate the corresponding function by using different degrees of force and direction of movement.
The invention has several other use cases, including a physical thumb control panel on a mobile phone, laptop, or car steering wheel, each of which has a plurality of pressure-sensitive geometry keys.
The use case of this touch screen sounds very similar to how the iPhone keyboard is used. Toshiyasu Abe believes that Apple's infringement also includes keyboards used in some iPad models. This keyboard allows the user to click and slide down a key Enter multiple characters. For example, if the user taps and slides down the D key, the $ symbol can be entered.
Toshiyasu Abe also accused Apple’s 3D Touch of infringing his patent, because Apple’s 3D Touch also uses pressure-sensing technology and has multi-functional properties.
It is alleged that Apple is further inducing infringements. It helps and teaches third-party iPhone input methods and applications to adopt similar technologies and provides them to users through the App Store.
Apple’s allegedly infringing products include the following iPad and iPhone models sold in the United States: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone 7, iPhone 7 Plus, iPhone 8, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone X, iPad Air, iPad Air 2, iPad Mini 2, iPad mini 3, iPad mini 4, 9.7-inch iPad, 9.7-inch iPad Pro, 10.5-inch iPad Pro.
The plaintiff stated in the indictment that Apple knew the patent of Toshiyasu Abe as early as in 2009. At the time, Toshiyasu Abe wrote a letter to Apple for the first time to notify him of the infringement. Later, the plaintiff communicated with Apple and communicated with the company several times. The internal lawyer had at least one telephone conversation but did not reach any agreement.
Then, in 2017, after Apple introduced iOS 11, the plaintiff discovered that Apple’s infringement was further expanded, prompting him to issue a patent infringement notification letter again to Apple in December last year. Apple and Toshiyasu Abe communicated again through legal counsel. , But also did not achieve any result.
Toshiyasu Abe is seeking compensation from Apple. The amount of compensation will not be less than a reasonable authorization fee. But first, the court needs to agree to hear the case.