Looks like the happy days of surfing the world from your palmtop has just entered troubled waters. EMG Technology, a LA based company has filed a lawsuit against Apple yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas in the Tyler Division. This lawsuit has been filed at the backdrop of the U.S. Patent number 7,441,196, titled “Apparatus and method of manipulating a region on a wireless device screen for viewing, zooming and scrolling internet content.” It was filed on March 13, 2006. in October. EMG’s claims are tall: they think that Apple’s web surfing is a patent-infringement issue of their own technology.

The press release in Business Wire regarding this issue reads:

EMG Managing Member Elliot Gottfurcht is one of the named inventors of five U.S. patents for navigating the Internet on mobile devices and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV). Issued on October 21, 2008, the ‘196 patent includes 76 claims, which are supported by specifications filed in 1999 by Mr. Gottfurcht and others.

The crux of this complicated patent is:

Web sites are just beginning to develop their mobile sister sites for fast and easy navigation. For example, to access NBC on a computer the URL is NBC.com. For the mobile site on the iPhone, the URL would be m.NBC.com. The ‘196 patent covers the simplified interface of reformatted mobile content to provide optimum viewing and navigation with single touches on a small screen. (For the detailed and complicated 8 pointed patent rhetoric, go here.)

EMG has bagged Stanley Gibson of the Medtronic fame (a settlement of $570m (£377m) for this case and Mr. Gibson has stated the following reason for targeting Apple:

We have not looked at anything other than the iPhone…That was the device that we looked at. Obviously, it’s very popular.

Apple’s reaction so far? Their stand is that they do not comment on pending litigation.

Does EMG and Mr. Ginson has a realistic chance against the mighty Apple? Seems so. After all, according to the United States Digital Laws anything is liable for patenting (and patent violation) that “include anything under the sun that is made by man.”

Let’s ask a few questions:

1.    Why Apple only at the moment?
2.    In future, will Android be also targeted?
3.    If at all Apple has to go the court, what will happen?
4.    If there is an out of court settlement, how much will Apple and EMG settle for?
5.    Finally, based on this patent‘s rhetoric, is it a valid case at all. After all Apple uses, Webkit to display full pages in its iPhone browser. It does not reformat  the pages to fit the screen.?

Tell us what you think.