iPhone 'Original Inventor' Sues Apple for Stealing His Idea

Apple may not have invented the iPhone, as Thomas S. Ross claims in a suit he filed in the Florida Southern District court against the company. He is suing Apple for $10 billion for stealing his idea and causing him a great injury.

According to the alleged Florida inventor, he created the idea in 1992 way before Apple ever released the iPhone in 2007. The "electronic reading device" (ERD) he drew up was a rectangular hand-held device that he claims is similar to the iPhone's design.

According to what he told The Guardian, Ross worked on the design for over a year when he was still a software engineer.

The suit he filed claims that he was "the first to file a device so designed and aggregated as to have created a novel combination of media and communication tools... whose identity was, since then, hijacked and exploited by Apple's iPhones, iPods, iPads and others."

The patent he filed along with the lawsuit claims that the technical drawings of his ERD "embody the non-functional aesthetic look and feel" as Apple's flagship devices, the iPhone, iPod and iPad.

Whether Ross' ERD device and Apple triumvirate of i-devices are similar, you can judge for yourself in the drawings here.

In addition to his claim of over $10 billion, he is also demanding royalties from the company amounting to 1.5 percent of Apple's sales in the future.

With Apple's revenues hitting $235 billion last year, Ross would be making about $3.5 billion a year if he gets his way.

It was revealed, however, that his patent was not approved because he did not pay the fees required for it to be filed. The patent office finally declared his filing abandoned in 1995, but he insists that Apple dove in the dumpster to accomplish their design of the iPhone and other devices.

According to the case, Apple is a company that looks for throwaway inventions as its R&D strategy instead of coming up with their own ideas.

The lawsuit also quoted Steve Jobs to strengthen the case, saying that Apple has "always been shameless about stealing great ideas," a company ideal which caused Ross "irreparable injury" that money could not fully compensate for.