Apple’s custom built A4 and A5 processors are the latest target in yet another patent violation lawsuit filed against Cupertino, this time by Taiwanese company VIA technologies.
VIA seeks a jury trial and an order prohibiting Apple from selling products containing its ARM-based A4 and A5 based SoCs in a complaint filed yesterday in a Wilmington, Delaware federal court.
It’s not entirely clear why VIA thinks the A4 and A5 violate its three cited US patents , only that those patents surround technology for microprocessors used in mobile devices like smartphones and tbalet computers.
“The products at issue generally concern microprocessors included in a variety of electronic products such as certain smartphones, tablet computers, portable media players and other computing devices,” Via said in the complaint.
If that’s all there is to it, sounds pretty bogus to me: I’m hard pressed to see how VIA could have patented the very idea of putting a computer chip in a mobile device. I guess we’ll know soon how this shakes out.
