Man claims he invented the iPhone and sues Apple for a whopping £7.5 BILLION
Inventor launches legal bid to make tech giant pay out a life-changing sum of money
An inventor has claimed he designed the iPhone and is now suing Apple for the huge sum of $10 billion (£7.5 billion).
Thomas S. Ross, from Florida, has filed a law suit claiming the tech giant infringed his design for an "Electronic Reading Device", which he tried to patent in the 1990s.
He said Apple had caused "great and irreparable injury that cannot fully be compensated or measured in money" and called on Apple to "destroy all copies and knock-offs".
"The device, constituting the invention, is a computerized, electronic reading device, the purpose of which is to provide an alternative to paper-based print-media such as books, magazines, manuscripts and news media," his lawyers said in court documents.
Ross first designed the device in 1992, but did not patent it properly after neglecting to make a payment.
The patent was "declared abandoned" in 2000.
This is how his lawyers described his idea: "What Ross contemplated, was a device that could allow one to read stories, novels, news articles, as well as look at pictures, watch video presentations, or even movies, on a flat touch-screen that was back-lit.
"He further imagined that it could include communication functions, such as a phone and a modem, input/output capability, so as to allow the user to write notes, and be capable of storing reading and writing material utilizing internal and external storage media. He also imagined that the device would have batteries and even be equipped with solar panels."
In legal papers, Ross alleged Apple had a "culture of dumpster diving" instead of "creating its own ideas".
"In 1996, Steve Jobs, former CEO of Apple, bragged publicly that Apple had a culture of 'shameless stealing' of other people's ideas," lawyers wrote.
As well as the mammoth pay out, Ross also wants a "reasonable royalty" amounting to 1.5 percent of Apple's global sales.
In 2014, :
"I think what he meant by 'steal' was you learn, as artists have, from past masters; you figure out what you like about it and what you want to incorporate into your idea, and you take it further and do something new with it.
"I can see why people might confuse that with the current use people have for that phrase. You don't just say, 'I want something that looks just like yours and I'm going to sell it too.'"
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