Apple Sued By Shuffle Imitation Maker

These days, lawsuits are as common as windy weather in Chicago. But Luxpro has taken the art of suing one step further: the company has sued Apple as a result of Apple's former suit against Luxpro, claiming that Apple's lawsuit cost Luxpro lost sales.

While the $100 million lawsuit is hefty enough to be noteworthy, another aspect makes this suit unique. The companies have already met in court in 2005 -- except at that time, the two parties were on opposite sides of the courtroom, with Apple as the plaintiff and Luxpro as the defendant. Apple had sued Luxpro for infringing on its iPod Shuffle design. (Source: betanews.com)

The Taiwanese court ruled in favor of Apple, citing that "Luxpro should desist from manufacturing, selling, and advertising the said products." However, Luxpro appealed the court's decision and won. Apple disagreed with the appellate court's decision to overturn the judgment and appealed to the Supreme Court of Taiwan, but to no avail. (Source: betanews.com)

Luxpro asserts that their MP3 player, the Tangent, is clearly differentiated from Apple's Shuffle. The company points out that the Tangent has an OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) display, and carries the brand name on the device. (Source: pcworld.com)

On the flip side, not only are the two devices extremely similar in size, but the front of the devices look almost identical. (Source: pcworld.com)

In Luxpro's new suit, the company claims that Apple's lawsuit caused Luxpro to lose out on large orders and valuable market opportunities. A statement by the company reveals that "Luxpro decided to file a US $100-million compensation claim against Apple Computer for its continued and illegitimate provisional disposition motion." (Source: dailytech.com)

In the suit, Luxpro throws out some serious claims. The company claims that during the previous trial, Apple threatened to remove iPod products from stores who carried the Tangent line. (Source: betanews.com)

Although Luxpro said "we are a small fry battling a giant whale," their lawsuit is certainly not meek and mild. And keeping in mind the results of their last clash in courts, Apple will certainly not treat the case lightly.