Mikey Campbell
Lodged in Northern Illinois District Court on Thursday, Samuel Lit's lawsuit asserts Apple's website homepage, which contains a number of display windows that cycle through various new and upcoming products, is in infringement of a patent covering web carousel technology.
As of this writing, Apple.com features a large dynamic carousel element with a four-pane UI cycling through major product advertisements for iPhone 6s, iPad Pro, Apple Watch and MacBook. Assets are rotated on a timer, hence the term "carousel," though visitors are able to cycle through at their leisure by clicking on interactive onscreen arrows or a row of dots.
Lit is leveraging U.S. Patent No. 8,793,330 for an "Information display system and method," which includes claims that describe elements of a display engine configured to deliver carousel content from a server to a webpage. Further claims cover statistical and financial functions in relation to database analytics.
A resident Penn Valley, Penn., filing the suit under Illinois' long-arm statute, Lit is an experienced radio broadcaster who dabbles in computer technology, according to Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. He previously served as President of Hy Lit Radio Technologies, official applicant of the '330 patent.
It appears that Lit attempted to monetize his carousel patent through a website called YourDisplayCarousel.com, which ceased operation in December. He also marketed search engine technology through HyLitGlobalSearch.com, as well as network audio solutions and a live streaming radio show via HyLitRadio.com and HyLitRhythm.com. The various projects were named after Lit's father Hy, a famous local radio broadcaster.
Lit seeks royalties with interest in his case against Apple.
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22 Comments
I'm not saying Apple is guilty or not guilty but what the hell? How come EVERYONE sues Apple but the second Apple fights for its rights they are shot down and fined too boot? Case in point Samsung. There's an old saying "youre not a little bit pregnant you're either pregnant or your not". Samsung copied it down to the packaging the charging cable EVERYTHING and still has not suffered anything but millions of sales.
It is sad that when it comes to Apple, people have double standard. It's pathetic really that all they see is "Apple does no good" even though it's so obviously not the case. Remember the 'doodle lawsuit that claimed Apple stole his kiddy design?' Ironically, a certain company claimed "does no evil" yet is exactly the opposite.
If your website posts at least one picture that violates patent I hold #I-Sue-You-87385738.
Also, if you are smiling in your digital photo, I have a patent on that, too. Therefore, you cannot smile for photos and if you do, I Sue You.
How can one sue a company because they have their website laid out in a certain way?????
This will very likely be dismissed due to prior art. A couple hours with the way back machine is likely all the work Apple's legal team will need to do. Also, it may be deemed obvious and derivative (not too far from cover flow, something Apple was using long before 2008). But if in some bizarre universe he prevails, he can sue me next. Just go look at the home page of my company's website, TimeTrade.com.
From: http://www.adamfellowes.com/blog/user-experience/the-rise-of-the-carosuel
So where did the carousel originate?
The first ‘main stream’ use of the carousel is that seen as part of the iTunes user interface. Here Apple took the analogy of the carousel from the jukebox that many music fans are familiar with. Fittingly this is a great digitization of a very tactile interaction that many will have encountered before and so matching the mental model of navigating a vast music collection.
When this interaction is taken out of this space its familiarity is lost. Experienced (apple) users are familiar with information being made available in this way. Those less exposed to apple products, often, during user testing session’s falter in successfully finding or navigating content presented as part of a carousel.