• December 29, 2008

A networking company filed a lawsuit last week against Google, Microsoft and Apple, alleging they violated a patent it owns on the use of document-preview icons--or thumbnails--in operating systems, according to CNet.

In the suit, Ann Arbor, Mich.-based 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. The case was filed in U.S. District Court in Arizona where company owner Gregory Swartz lives, according to PCWorld.

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."--Tanya Iwin