Florida Man Sues Apple for $10+ Billion, Says iOS Devices Copy His 1992 Drawings

[psionicsin]

While the plaintiff claims that he continues to experience "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money," he has demanded a jury trial and is seeking restitution no less than $10 billion and a royalty of up to 1.5% on Apple's worldwide sales of infringing devices.

His "great and irreparable injury that cannot be fully compensated or measured in money" measures to...$10B and 1.5% of Apples worldwide sales? Seems to be that he fully measured the extent of this "great and irreparable" injury.

A generic, catch-all device design that he made no intention of creating or even distributing, and probably had no funds to do so. Further noting that these elements were in fact all incorporated (citing MRxROBOT) in the Palm line of devices first. Every mobile manufacturer does everything listed in that so-called patent, and he's targeting Apple?

 

[gnasher729]

Sounds legit. I scribbled something with crayon when I was a toddler that looks like an iPad, maybe I was drawing rectangles at the time. I plan to sue.

That's tough then, if you left out the rounded corners

 

[zorinlynx]

Wow. I used to draw silly stuff like this in jr. high and high school. I have a whole folder stashed somewhere full of these things. Some examples I vaguely remember:

- Full duplex CB walkie talkie (Hey, it was the 80s)
- Combination camcorder and Apple II (I SHOULD SUE APPLE!!!!!)
- Portable video disk player

My teenage self didn't know he was inventing the future! I DEMAND COMPENSATION!

The difference here in my case is that I'm vaguely in touch with reality. This guy obviously isn't.

 

[Q-Dog]

If this is worth $10 Billion, I need to call Mom and see if she still has any of the lame futuristic crap I drew back in school.

 

[ignatius345]

LOL typical "Florida Man" story

 

[Shirasaki]

$10+ billion. Holy. This guy needs so much money that desperately? I cannot think he will even get one dollar from Apple. This is beyond craziness.

Anyway, he may likely fail at last.

And yes, current patent system sucks.

 

[rolsskk]

Perhaps this man would like to explain why it took him nearly 10 years to bring it to court?? It's not like the iPhone is something new to the market.

 

[CarlJ]

Only Suing apple? Why not Android manufacturers as well?

Because Apple has all the money. "Your honor, Apple has a whole lot of money, so I feel entitled to some of it." I drew similar things in the 80's. Maybe I should sue him.

 

[ike1707]

Dumb af, but is anyone really surprised?

I really enjoy how he brings this up 9 years after the introduction of the first iPhone

 

[jtrenthacker]

3.5" floppy?

 

[BeefCake 15]

Pay that guy his money today, I'm totally convinced!

 

[apolloa]

Prediction for this thread:

I project 633 votes (to bashes) against Ross, 8 for Ross.

Another thread where it would be an old Apple patent or Apple drawing in which Apple is trying to challenge someone for bringing something they drew or patented to market: 633 votes for Apple, 8 votes for the other entity.

At least, we're consistent around here

Haha and there we go, on the first page. Exactly as I was thinking, the good ol Apple defence Legue in full protection of a drawing of an oblong with round corners that looks like a child drew it that Apple made, but are laughing and joking about a proper drawing of a device that the iPhone AND many other devices became.

Still a pointless trial if he failed to pay for its patent.

 

[inhalexhale1]

https://ww.reddit.com/r/floridaman

FloridaMan, 59, accused of punching swan in front of off-duty officers

hahahaha, I think this beats the lawsuit

 

[kdarling]

And Florida Man promises he never, ever watched "Star Trek" or "2001: A Space Odyssey" prior to drawing his contraption.

Hey, denying such prior art worked for Apple

Good luck. Apple spent loads of money suing samsung on design and failed. The guy should try suing Blackberry for the keyboard design. Actually, I see nothing similar about the design except for the rectangular shape

Right now, Apple still has $400 million from Samsung that was awarded because they convinced a jury that their design patents (on a rounded face with bezel, a flat rounded dark face, and a grid of rounded colorful icons) were valid and infringed.

 

[H3boy]

The phone in figure 2 is not the iPhone from 2007 as stated. I'm no legal expert but I think the case could be thrown out just for the discrepancy alone.

 

[mcarling]

Apple will either have this dismissed or they will win with a Motion for Summary Judgement.

 

[jlc1978]

HA HA and this is the reason this shouldn't even be allowed to go to court. Guess what a small company forgot to patent dos as well and it worked out fine for MS. This guy is an idiot.

Considering MS first licensed it then purchased it from Seattle Computer Products, SCP did OK. You could argue they should have asked for a chunk of MS stock but at the time no one knew MS would become MS.

 

[subjonas]

Is that all it takes to have a patent? A little doodle? Also how can people or companies claim to own rectangles or rounded corners? Obviously I don't understand the patent system at all.

 

[timborama]

I want one!

 

[Christian 5G]

Seriously?!

 

[danbolling]

Dear MacRumors ... you do not have the hang of these "Florida Man" stories. They are crazy, followed by more crazy, and then an additional extra bit of crazy at the end. I should know. I live in Florida.

This story is close, but it needs to end with something like ... "Ross says that he will probably settle for a pet alligator and an airboat as long as all future maintenance and care costs are included, then he put his shirt back on and went inside his trailer."

 

[grundoon]

Sounds to be like he copied Apples design...from Wikipedia:

"An early device in the PDA category – the Newton originated the term "personal digital assistant" – it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started developing the platform in 1987 and shipped the first devices in 1993, production officially ended on February 27, 1998."​

Hmm...that sounds like 5 years before this bonehead filed his patent.....

Even better...

May 23, 1992: alleged date of first drawing
May 23, 1992: date of Scully's public Newton demo

 

[johnnysip]

I drew a picture of bubble gum once (already chewed)... Does Wrigley (or any other manufacturers) owe me a billion dollars?

That would be cool...

 

[pennyzee]

haha. Dude was gonna invent the e-reader but dude didn't even have a ruler to make his lines straight? Ok.

 

[AndyUnderscoreR]

Even if he did get 1992 patent, patents expire after 20 years so he's too late.