Florida Man Claims He Invented iPhone In ’92, Wants $13.4Billion From Apple

Folks, you know it’s a gonna be a good day at the ole’ content quarry when you come across a yarn that starts with the words “A Florida man…“.
That preamble right there is the International Roast of interest: Instant.
A FLORIDA MAN by the name of Thomas Ross has just now decided that Apple entirely ripped off the design and concept for the iPhone from him, and is now dead keen on getting his pound of flesh.
Well, we say “pound of flesh,” but the reality is he’s being rather charitable about the whole thing, and has offered to settle out of court.
For $13.4 billion.
And 1.5% of all global iPhone, iPad, and iPod sales.
Ya know. As a compromise.
Back in 1992 Ross filed a patent for an “Electronic Reading Device” that featured drawings of a touch-screen, smart-phone lookin’ device that could watch videos, display electronic books, look at pictures, and so on.
The sketches – which were just sketches, and literally nothing more – appeared to closely resemble devices seen in Star Trek, as well as Apple’s own Newton PDA devices which were getting about at the time.
The patent lapsed in 1995 and was declared abandoned after Ross failed to pay the necessary fees.
Ross is seeking a jury trial for the case, claiming Apple has caused him “great and irreparable injury” for this most clear and grievous of thefts.
‘Course there’s a lot of things still up in the air about this case: Whether or not Apple will cough up the cash to Ross over the case, whether or not it’ll be enough to buy the gold house and the rocket car he’s clearing lusting after, or whether or not it’ll actually make it to a trial in the first place.
But if it does make it to trial, expect someone to claim they once paid Ross a couple of blintzes to paint their fence; a task that Ross never completed.
To be fair, those blintzes probably were terrible.
Source: News.com.au.

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