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Apple's Time Machine, Cover Flow, and Safari for iOS Targeted in New Patent Infringement Lawsuit

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Patent holding company TriDim Innovations this week filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, accusing the companying of violating two 3D workspace patents the company owns. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California with a judge assignment still pending.

TriDim asserts in the suit that Apple is infringing on U.S. patents 5,838,326 and 5,847,709, both of which address document management in 3D workspaces. Specifically, Apple Time Machine, Cover Flow, and Safari for iOS 7 and 8 are claimed to be infringing on the patents.

US5838326-2.png
One embodiment of the document display space disclosed in TriDim's patents​

Both of TriDim's patents were originally filed in 1996 and awarded to Xerox in late 1998, although they have changed hands several times in recent years. Patent '326 details a method of moving and manipulating document objects in a 3D workspace using touch-drop, flick and other gestures.
A computer controlled display system for displaying a three-dimensional document workspace is disclosed. One or more documents objects are present in the document workspace. The present invention provides for interaction with the collections, e.g. viewing, moving and storing, while balancing the necessary tradeoffs of rapid access, number of collections and associated documents, and available screen space.
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TriDim is asking for unspecified monetary damages for Apple's alleged infringement, along with interest and court costs.

​

TriDim's lawsuit is not the first time Apple has been accused of patent infringement for its Time Machine and Cover Flow interfaces. In 2010, Apple was initially hit with a $625 million judgment in a case centered on a different set of patents owned by Mirror Worlds LLC. That verdict was ultimately overturned, however, and became final when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

Article Link: Apple's Time Machine, Cover Flow, and Safari for iOS Targeted in New Patent Infringement Lawsuit
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2015/01/21/apple-tridim-patent-infringement/
So why doesn't TriDim sue Mirror Worlds or vice versa?

Oh, that's right, patent trolls don't sue other patent trolls, that would be unethical/unprofessional. Oh yeah, and neither of them have Apple's deep pockets or actual products that incorporate the patents.
 
KazKam said:
So why doesn't TriDim sue Mirror Worlds or vice versa?

Oh, that's right, patent trolls don't sue other patent trolls, that would be unethical/unprofessional. Oh yeah, and neither of them have Apple's deep pockets or actual products that incorporate the patents.
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From the article:
centered on a different set of patents
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Strange, it was filed in California, not in Eastern Texas
 
So here's the big question: if Apple has been causing this company so much harm to warrant going to court, why is it only now, 7 years after Time Machine and even more after Cover Flow, that they're choosing to do anything about it?
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
So here's the big question: if Apple has been causing this company so much harm to warrant going to court, why is it only now, 7 years after Time Machine and even more after Cover Flow, that they're choosing to do anything about it?
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Because next year everything will be flat design and they won't get a penny.
 
Oletros said:
From the article:
Click to expand...

Of course the two companies have a different sets of patents they are using to sue for the same infringements, and so does Apple, but all are allegedly related and infringing upon each other, what's your point?

This is the problem with software patents. They are either so ambiguous they could apply to anything, so obvious as to be inevitably "discovered", or so specific to be useless/obsolete by the time they are granted.
 
Gotta love the patent trolls. Time Machine and Cover Flow, really? Hasn't these been around in OSX for almost a decade?
 
Patent trolls aside, they just exploit the very exploitable system for profit, it is after all the American way...

But more to the point, why do they award patents for such crap?

This thing needs a serious overhaul.
 
These trolls probably won't get a single penny.

But even IF they do, it wouldn't even cost Apple a fraction of a penny compared to how much money they have.
 
ArtOfWarfare said:
So here's the big question: if Apple has been causing this company so much harm to warrant going to court, why is it only now, 7 years after Time Machine and even more after Cover Flow, that they're choosing to do anything about it?
Click to expand...

Patents filed after 1995 expire 20 years from filing date. These two patents expire in 2016. So if they think they've got something the clock is about to run out.
 
Lexdexia said:
These trolls probably won't get a single penny.

But even IF they do, it wouldn't even cost Apple a fraction of a penny compared to how much money they have.
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They will get go away money.

To me at this day and age it is almost impossible to know every facet and nuance of a patent.
Plus, people due to evolving technologies may come up with the same idea.

Apple doesn't infringe outright on purpose. They are smarter than that.
They may however decide to bend a rule or see how close is close.
 
If the patents were granted so many years ago, why are they only now being brought up? The article states that the patents have been sold around, so I wonder if this was a recent purchase by this company that decided to give it a try and see what money the can get out of Apple? Otherwise, I wonder why none of the previous owners tried to sue Apple?
 
Meh,

Looks more like the so called "Unix System" in Jurassic Park, than it does Coverflow to me. But I am jaded with regards to these patent holding groups.
 
doesn't every company that uses one of those virtual-space 'word clouds' (moving in and out of foreground) violate these patents too?
 
Never mind the patent trolls using them ... The fact that these patents were issued in the first place is further evidence that the patent system is broken.
 
KazKam said:
, but all are allegedly related and infringing upon each other, what's your point?
Click to expand...

And you arrive to this conclusion exactly how?

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JAQ said:
Never mind the patent trolls using them ... The fact that these patents were issued in the first place is further evidence that the patent system is broken.
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Both are very big problems, the patent trolls and what patents are granted
 
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