Apple Sued Over Quick Look File Preview

On Thursday, October 25, 2012, Whitserve (plaintiff) launched a suit against Apple (defendant) for patent infringement in the U.S District Court of Connecticut (case no.3:12-cv-01522).

Whitserve is a Connecticut based company which focuses on accessible, secure and easy-to-use applications that automate business processes, improve web services, and implement a variety of knowledge-worker functions across multiple industries. Apple is an American multinational corporation headquartered in Cupertino, California that designs, develops, and sells consumer electronics, computer software, and personal computers.

The patent US7921139 involved in this suit is currently assigned[†] to Whitserve (Source: MaxVal’s Assignment Database).The patent entitled System for sequentially opening and displaying files in a directory was issued on April 5, 2011 and expires[‡] on December 01, 2026.

According to the complaint, the defendant’s products Mac OS X Leopard, Mac OS X Snow Leopard, Mac OS X Lion and Mac OS X Mountain Lion include a function (identified as) Quick Look that infringes the patent US7921139. Quick Look allows users to quickly preview any files stored on the computer without fully booting up a reader application. 

The plaintiff in the past has filed suits against the companies listed below:

Company	Case No.	Date Filed	Status
GoDaddy.com, Zygo Corp.	3:11-cv-00948	06/14/2011	Pending
Patrafee AB, Ipendo AB	3:11-cv-00562	04/11/2011	Closed
Dennemeyer & Co.	3:10-cv-01182	07/28/2010	Pending
Benesch Friedlander Coplan & Aranoff	8:10-cv-01639	06/18/2010	Pending
Computer Packages	3:2006cv01935	11/30/2006	Pending
Computer Patent Annuities	3:2004cv01897	11/10/2004	Closed
Computer Packages	3:02-cv-01135	06/27/2002	Closed
Computer Packages	2011-1206	N/A	Pending
Computer Packages	2011-1261	N/A	Pending

If you are interested in knowing more about the cases, please contact us.

For more details, visit MaxVal-IP and subscribe to our Litigation Alerts.

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[†]Maxval offers Patent Assignment Alert service where subscribers receive email alerts when assignments relating to target applications, patents or entities of interest are recorded.

[‡]Expected expiration date. Patent Term Estimator is a free web-based tool that automatically calculates patent terms and expiration dates for U.S. utility patents.