[转载]VIA Wants iPad, iPhone Banned in USA

Apple's iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Apple TV supposedly infringe upon three patents owned by VIA Technologies. VIA is asking the court to halt sales of those products.

ZoomWhat goes around come around. Apple just won a battle against Samsung which resulted in the banning of the latter company's Android-based Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Germany. The German courts agreed with the fruity iPad developer in that the company owns exclusive rights to minimalist tablet designs (and apparently Stanley Kubrick does not). Citing patent infringement, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 cannot be imported or sold within the German borders.

But now Apple is facing a patent infringement lawsuit filed against it by Taipei-based motherboard, CPU, and chipset maker VIA Technologies, Inc. Submitted to the U.S. Federal Court in Wilmington, Delaware, VIA is crying patent infringement (who isn't anymore) and seeking a jury trial along with a plea to the court to ban the sale of Apple's iPad, iPhone, iPod and Apple TV products.

According to the lawsuit, these devices infringe upon three of its U.S.-based patents -- two filed in 2001 and the third in 2004 -- that "generally provides efficient loading of data in the microprocessors and efficient conversion and transfer of data in the microprocessors." The three patents specifically cover a technical "instruction set for bi-directional conversion and transfer of integer and floating point data" and "method and apparatus for double operand load."

"Microprocessors that include this technology can rapidly load data from memory, directly move data between floating point and integer registers, and rapidly convert data from one another, thereby increasing the operational speed of the microprocessors," VIA said in its suit.

Unfortunately, Apple may have a tough battle ahead. The Delaware Court is supposedly known as a "plaintiff-friendly region," similar to the Eastern District Federal Court of Texas. Banning the sale of Apple products seems a little far-fetched, but if anything, the Cupertino company may have to shell out some big bucks if found guilty.

Timing of the complaint isn't coincidental. Apple is reportedly gearing up to reveal the iPhone 4S on October 4 along with the new iPod Touch model and perhaps even the rumored iPhone 5. A temporary injunction barring Apple from selling "infringing products" would cripple Apple's pre-holiday season sales.