'Google, Apple, MS infringed patent'

NEW DELHI: Cygnus Systems has filed a lawsuit against Google, Microsoft, and Apple alleging that all three tech giants violated a patent it owns on the use of document-preview icons-or thumbnails-in operating systems.

In the suit (PDF), the networking company says that the three company's infringed on its patent with products such as Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 8 and Google Chrome, which allow users to view preview images of documents on the computer.

The lawsuit claims that Apple also uses the patent-protected technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features.

Cygnus describes the technology covered by the patent as "methods and systems for accessing one or more computer files via a graphical icon, wherein the graphical icon includes an image of a selected portion or portions of one or more computer files."

The case was filed in Arizona District Court, where company owner Gregory Swartz lives, according to PCWorld.

Cygnus was granted the patent in March 2008, according to the lawsuit, although it first applied for it back in 2001 as a continuation to a 1998 application, according to Ars Technica.

The company is seeking damages and a permanent injunction preventing further infringement. It's also indicated that it might go after other companies as defendants.