Apple (AAPL) shakedown attempt

As reported by our sister blog Engadget, Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) has been sued for patent infringement. SP Technologies of Florida claims to have prior ownership of the iPhone's sexy touchscreen keyboard concept. Shades of the RIM/NTP BlackBerry patent struggle?

Not quite. In this case, the plaintiff, SP Technologies, comes to court with a very bad reputation for filing frivolous suits against companies such as Canon, Kyocera and others. The patent itself is testimony to the ongoing problem with our protection of intellectual property, in which vague or obvious ideas are granted patent protection. In this case, the patent abstract includes these cutting-edge (in 1970) ideas:

"A method and medium for a computer readable input area. The input area is created by a computer program on a display capable of receiving touch-screen input. The computer on which the input area is used is at least a 32-bit system. The input area may contain a keyboard which is an image map."

Looking deeper at SP Technologies, we find the company apparently is really just Iowa surgeon Peter V. Boesen. Perhaps Boesen is hoping this lawsuit will help pay for an appeal of the prison sentence that currently hangs over his head -- 51 months in federal lockup for healthcare fraud.

I doubt that Steve Jobs has much to worry about in this case.