Roger Fingas
An app developer for Apple's older Macs is suing, arguing that a large number of Apple devices and apps violate patents related to spellchecking technology.
The plaintiff is Sentius Corporation, now Sentius International, which says it was a Newton developer and also created the "Sentius Electronic Book Player" for Mac. Apple reportedly bundled Player with all of its computers shipped in Japan between 1996 and 1998. Sentius also produced a series of "RichLink enabled" books called "Epistola," which Apple promoted through a brochure included with its Performa series.
The suit centers around U.S. Patents No. RE43,633 and 7,672,985, which together document the "red squiggly" highlights of a system spellcheck system and its associated dictionary. Most of the infringing products cited are legacy models, including iPhones as old as the iPhone 5, and iPads reaching back to the third-generation model. Listed Macs go back as far as 2012.
Sentius also cites specifics apps, among them Mail, Messages, Notes, TextEdit and Safari. It also mentions versions 5 through 7 of Pages, and 6 through 8 of Keynote, plus their iCloud equivalents.
"Defendant has had knowledge of infringement of the '633 patent at least by July 21, 2015," a court filing reads, noting that Sentius sent a letter explaining its belief that Apple is using its spellcheck engine. Apple is said to have been aware of the '985 patent since June 2018, when a second letter was sent.
Sentius' lawyers are requesting a jury trial, an injunction against violating the '985 patent, and costs and damages including pre- and post-judgment interest.
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39 Comments
I don’t know about the strength of the case, but Apple’s “spellcheck” is crap.
When I misspell something, Apple has no ideas. I frequently type it again into Safari’s address bar, powered by Google, to get the correct spelling. With Google I usually don’t even need to type in half the incorrectly spelled word to get the correct one.
Apple doesn’t catch the most basic mistakes, using a “d” rather than “t” using one wrong vowel, using “ss” rather than “cc” etc.
Woh neds selpchk? Yuo cna porbalby raed tihs esaliy desptie teh msispeillgns.
:p
Without more data, this certainly seems like an attempt to cash in. Waiting almost exactly four years to file your complaint after notifying Apple that you think they are using your spellcheck engine suggests you simply got a response you didn’t like (“no we’re not”). Also, where ya been since 2012, when this “theft” of “your” spellcheck engine first occurred?
It’s extremely unlikely that Apple has been using “their” spellcheck since 2012 and just not licensing it, so the chances of them getting everything they’re looking for there is less than zero.
Not to mention that writing a spellcheck engine consists mostly of loading in a dictionary and then hooking in system calls, so ... good luck, fellas.