Droplets Patent Lawsuit Targets iTunes, Apple Web Sites

Anther day, another patent lawsuitDroplets has jumped into the patent lawsuit game by suing Apple over iTunes, the Apple movie trailer Web site, and other Apple sites. The company claimed Apple’s use of servers to deliver content through Web apps are covered by patents it owns, and that the Mac and iPhone maker isn’t paying licensing fees.

Along with Apple, the lawsuit also names Google, Yahoo!, and Facebook.

The patent (6,687,745) describes a “system and method for delivering a graphical user interface of remote applications over a thin bandwidth connection,” and was filed in 2000.

Droplets sells its own product called Droplets User Interactive Server for delivering Web and network-based applications, and lists companies such as IBM and Borland as clients.

The company filed its lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court in the Eastern District in Texas, which is known for favoring plaintiffs in patent infringement cases. Unlike other many other patent cases filed in that court, however, Droplets is selling a product based on its own patents instead of simply acting as a patent holder.

Apple has not commented on the filing.

[Thanks to Patently Apple for the heads up.]