A Michigan-based networking company on Wednesday 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), Cygnus Systems targets Google's Chrome, Microsoft's Vista and Internet Explorer 8, and Apple's iPhone, Safari, and Mac OS X as patent infringers. Apple uses the patent-protected technology in its Finder and Cover Flow Mac OS X features, the lawsuit claims.
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."
News source: CNET News
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