Typhoon Touch Technologies has added Apple, Toshiba, Palm, and several other companies to a lawsuit originally filed in December against Dell, for allegedly infringing on patents granted to it back in 1995 and 1997 concerning touch screens for portable computers.
Typhoon has already been successful in reaching out of court settlements with Motion Computing and Electovaya on the same issues. Considering the growing trend towards touch-based computing interfaces, Typhoon's patents - if actually confirmed and determined as being critical to touch-screen products - could in theory have a detrimental impact on the adoption of the technology. What is more likely, however, is that the cases will be settled out of court, ultimately resulting in more expensive devices and a huge increase in Typhoon's profits courtesy of licensing fees.