It’s still more than a month away from release, but the Amazon Kindle Fire is already drawing the wrong kind of attention from a company called Smartphone Technologies. Namely, the kind of attention that involves touchscreens and a patent infringement lawsuit.
Smartphone Technologies has made a name for itself by suing Apple, Research in Motion and other well-known companies over its ownership of U.S. Patent #6956562, which centers around touch-sensitive screens.
(MORE: Amazon Services, Not Pricing, Is Why the Kindle Fire Is Disruptive)
That isn’t the only patent named in the company’s new lawsuit against Amazon, however; there are three others also mentioned, including one owned by Palm for a “System and Method For Displaying and Manipulating Multiple Calendars on a Personal Digital Assistant.”
Amazon has not responded to the lawsuit as yet, but judging by the success—or lack thereof—of previous Smartphone Technologies’ patent lawsuits, we can expect a lengthy legal dispute that may, ultimately, be resolved by any of Smartphone Technologies’ earlier patent infringement suits being conclusively settled in the defendants’ favor.
MORE: Could Amazon’s Kindle Fire Dethrone Apple’s iPad?
[via paidContent]
Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.