According to The Loop, Apple has been sued for patent infringement over Mobile Safari for iPhone and iPod Touch by Softview.

Basically, Softview claims that they have the patent for “scalable internet content on mobile devices”, as seen in the 353 patent, issued to Gary Rohrabaugh and Scott Sherman.

“Mobile devices enabled to support resolution-independent scalable display of Internet (Web) content to allow Web pages to be scaled (zoomed) and panned for better viewing on smaller screen sizes. The mobile devices employ software-based processing of original Web content, including HTML-based content, XML, cascade style sheets, etc. to generate scalable content. The scalable content and/or data derived therefrom are then employed to enable the Web content to be rapidly rendered, zoomed, and panned. Moreover, the rendered displays provide substantially the same or identical layout as the original Web page, enabling users to easily navigate to selected content and features on familiar Web pages. Display lists may also be employed to provide further enhancements in rendering speed. Additionally, hardware-based programmed logic may be employed to facilitate various operations.”

Guess what, they’re asking for cash.