News.blog: Apple sued over iPhone keyboard

The first iPhone lawsuit might have been somewhat laughable, but the second one may be a little more serious.

An outfit called SP Technologies has sued Apple over the touchscreen keyboard at the heart of the iPhone, claiming Apple is infringing on a patent held by SP Technologies for a similar keyboard. AppleInsider dug up the SP patent filing from 2000, which claims the company developed a "method of providing a user interface for receiving information from a user using a user immutable graphical keyboard linked to an input area".

Patent suits, of course, are two a penny, and Apple's not exactly the first company to ever use a touchscreen style input method. But this one will probably require more effort to defend than the iPhone battery suit filed a few weeks ago. The suit was filed on Thursday in Tyler, Texas, which has become the destination of choice for patent suits these days.

An Apple representative did not immediately return a call seeking comment, but it's unlikely Apple would have much to say at this stage.