Yep, he has no patent. Just a copyrighted diagram from 2014.
Although, hmm... I suppose even his aborted patent application could count as prior art, since it's on the record. Not that it would help him.
It's possible that, since he wasn't an engineer, he had no idea that white LEDs did not exist yet. Red, green or yellow LED backlit LCDs were around, though.
A project called Newton began in 1987, but it was more about a full sized tablet like device, akin to the Knowledge Navigator concept. Here's what a prototype of that Newton version looked like even in 1993:
View attachment 638252
The other, smaller, handheld production Newton came along later. According to Wired's history, based on interviews with the people who did the work, "Newton was conceived on an airplane. That’s where Michael Tchao pitched the idea to Apple’s CEO, John Sculley, in early 1991."
In any case, he's not suing over the Newton. He's suing over the iPhone, iPod and iPad general aesthetics, apparently. And they don't look anything like any Newton
I didn't think I needed to put a /s tag on a joke post about digging up old drawings as a kid
Yes, let's hope his lawsuit doesn't go anywhere. Otherwise people will be coming out of the woodwork!
It won't pass. His distasteful drawing looks NOTHING like the iPhone from 2007 and up. Nothing.