iPhone Faces Suit Over its Role as E-Book Reader

It appears as if Apple has been named as a defendant in a recent suit filed by Monec Holding.  According to CNET News, Monec accuses Apple of “patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortuous interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent.”  That patent is titled “Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.”

Monec’s claims center around Apple’s reading applications for the iPhone, which make the phone an eBook reader.  Supposedly, this violates Monec’s patent filed for a lightweight electronic device with a touchscreen, that can display a page of a book at normal size.

Some have speculated that this lawsuit may have been started by Amazon’s Kindle for iPhone e-book reader software that is now in Apple’s App Store.  However, it seems as if Monec’s claims may be a bit too general for this lawsuit to ruled in the plantiff’s favor.

Discovery Sues Amazon over Kindle

Although Amazon introduced the Kindle e-book reader in November 2007, it appears as if a similar patent was granted that same month to Discovery Communications.  That company, better known for its ownership of the Discovery Channel, filed a patent in 1999, with  most of the major features now incorporated in the Kindle.  As reported by Ars Technica, Discovery has now filed a suit against Amazon for patent infringement.

Discovery’s patent is called “Electronic book security and copyright protection system,” and the majority of the claims involve encrypting and delivering e-book contents.  But the patent contains over 170 clauses, most of them citing variations in which the encryption takes place at different points in the distribution.  The patent also explains that a patented book could be distributed over the Internet and on “a wireless telephone network.”  If that weren’t troubling enough for Amazon, the patent also covers most of Kindle’s content management system.

Discovery is not seeking an injunction with their lawsuit, but they are seeking “adequate [damages] to compensate Discovery for Amazon’s infringement.”  The suit also asks the court to impose a royalty agreement.

It is now for the court to decide if Amazon really did infringe on Discovery’s patents, or if these similarities are not guilty of infringement.  But Discovery has nine patents covering e-books in their portfolio, and it may be tough for Amazon to evade all of them.