Firm sues Google, Apple, Microsoft over 'preview' feature

Where there's a will, there's a lawsuit. MacWorld reports that Cygnus Systems, a small networking company in Indiana, has filed suit against Google, Apple and Microsoft claiming that all three firms infringe on its recently awarded patent for graphical, thumbnail-type previews. According to the suit, products like Microsoft's Vista and IE 8, Apple's OSX, iPhone, and Cover Flow feature and Google's Chrome are all guilty of infringement. Plus the firm says these three are just the first, and probably not the only companies it plans to go after.

The patent (U.S. #7346850) was filed by Cygnus in 2001 and granted just this past March. Titled a "System and method for iconic software enviroment management," the patent is for "a method of accessing one or more computer files via a graphical icon," or thumbnail preview.

According to Matt McAndrews, a partner in the law firm of Niro, Scavone, Haller & Niro, which is representing Cygnus:

Cygnus's owner and president, Gregory Swartz, developed the technology laid out in the patent whle working on IT consulting projects. The company is looking for “a reasonable royalty” as well as a court injunction preventing further infringement.

Good luck. Such thumbnail previews were in the mix long before Cygnus's 2001 patent application (via Apple's QuarkXpress and Adobe Illustrator, just to name a couple). While it's surprising that Cygnus was even awarded the patent in the first place, it will be astounding if the combined legal teams of Google, Microsoft and Apple don't squash this suit where it stands.

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