Picsel Sues Apple Over iPhone Screen

Picsel Technologies and Picsel Research, both based in the UK, have filed a lawsuit against Apple in the Delaware US District Court. Picsel alleges that Apple is illegally using patented screen rendering technology in the iPhone and other devices.

The company has apparently licensed its technology to companies such as Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, Palm, Samsung, and others representing 250 million mobile devices worldwide. The technology in question speeds up rendering to make actions like panning and zooming appear smoother.

Without the technology, known as rapid-redraw, lawyers representing Picsel claimed that users would experience intolerable screen refresh delays when scrolling through documents and web pages. Picsel says they've invested millions into rapid-redraw, now US patent 7,009,626.

Picsel is seeking compensation and damages in line with the number of iPhone and iPod Touch units Apple has already sold, already in the tens of millions. No comment from Apple as they rally the lawyers again. The company is currently dealing with 20 legal cases.