Every touch-based Apple product targeted by apparent patent troll

A bit harsh to call a company/inventor who is producing touch panel displays / screens since more than 15 years a "patent troll".

Their solutions are in use and new ones created all the years since then (see http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2008/03/10/s...).

Key question is if Apple with their technology have infringed these patents.

Apple does reference the patent themselves for 3 of their own applications.

If you have a look at the drawings they (together with the text) do describe the use of gestures including pressure on haptic touch devices to manipulate elements on the screen. Again this patent does not have priority from 2005 but from 1997 when it was originally filed.

A more extensive overview on the patent at: http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2012/04/apple-su... (submitted yesterday as http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3875325)

It's a tiring endless war. I am not going to say the usual "patent is broken" or other clichés because I am not a lawyer and I have no real clue of the proportion of the problem and if some reasonable solutions exists but I am really afraid for small companies in hardware business. Apple can handle such claims, they have so much cash that they can probably simply the company that makes the claim. Some companies would just get crushed and surrender in a matters of months.

The only satisfying part is that everybody takes a good taste of their own medicine, Apple included.