The plaintiff in this case is EMG Technology, the proud owner of US patent 7,441,196. The patent in question provides EMG with the exclusive rights for a "method and apparatus of simplified navigation". Also, the patent includes in EMG’s portfolio:
"A method of navigating the Internet, comprising: displaying on-line content accessed via the Internet, the on-line content reformatted from a webpage in a hypertext markup language (HTML) format into an extensible markup language (XML) format to generate a sister site, the sister site including a portion or a whole of content of the web page reformatted to be displayed and navigable through a simplified navigation interface on any one of a television, web appliance, console device, handheld device, wireless device or cellular phone."
Apple has been under a lot of legal fire ever since the iPhone was released. Up till now, patent trolls have tried their luck by claiming their rights for the phone’s touch screen, virtual keyboard, visual voicemail or the caller ID feature. What will be their next target, I wonder…