Apple sued over multi-touch function

We were all quite enthralled by the subtle legal banter that went on between Apple and Palm regarding the ownership of multi-touch technology, when the new Pre was revealed to have access to the function.

Nothing immediately came of it, though Apple now finds itself facing a lawsuit from Taiwanese component manufacturer Elan over the exact same thing; filed this week in the US District Court in San Francisco.

Elan Microelectronics has seen some success in court before when Synaptics was sued (and ultimately agreed to a licensing deal) on similarly owned patents.

Quite why it’s taken Elan so long to file its complaint is unknown, especially after a statement issued by Elan earlier in the year stated, “there is actually no conflict between the multi-touch technologies used by ELAN and Apple. None of ELAN's current customers are using or plan to adopt the patent claim in the future.”

An injunction has also been applied for to stop the iPhone, iPod touch and MacBook from being sold until a verdict has been reached, and a spokesperson for Elan told the New York Times, “We couldn’t find a common viewpoint with Apple, so we decided we had to take action.”