Man sues Apple for $10 billion, claims he invented the iPhone back in 1992

A man named Thomas S. Ross has filed a $10 billion lawsuit against Apple, claiming to have invented the iPhone back in 1992. That would be 15 years before then Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the device in January 2007. Ross says that besides the iPhone, Apple used the utility design he patented 24 years ago to manufacture the Apple iPod and Apple iPad.

Ross claims that the trio of Apple products have a design that was derived from the sketches he submitted to the USPTO back in 1992 in support of his patent submission titled "Electronic Reading Device." The product sketched by Ross shows a device that does resemble a modern smartphone with a touchscreen for reading news stories, viewing images and watching videos. He is requesting a jury trial and is seeking $10 billion from Apple along with a 1.5% royalty on the sales of future iOS devices.

The USPTO let the application go in 1995 when Ross failed to pay the fees required to keep the patent process going. In other words, no patent was ever received by Ross for his device. He did file his technical drawings with the U.S. Copyright Office in 2014. Besides a single screen model, Ross' sketches include a version with a dual screen.

Ross says that Apple went "dumpster diving" when it came across his sketches. The suit includes a quote from Steve Jobs which reads, "we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas. In the suit, he claims that Apple has caused him "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money".


source: Telegraph