In the most recent patent infringement lawsuit filed on Wednesday, in the , Eastern Texas Division, as many as 23 companies - including Apple, LG, Microsoft - have been sued by a Texas firm Tsera LLC, which claims to have invented the touchpad!

According to the complaint filed, Tsera - a business apparently named after an obsolete Native American tribe - claims that it owns "all right, title and interest in" a patent for "Methods and apparatus for controlling a portable electronic device using a touchpad." The company says the patent, which was filed in 1999, was granted to Chuang Li in
2003.

Tsera is seeking a jury trial for the infringement of its touchpad controls patent in a number of devices - including the iPod classic and nano from Apple; Chocolate VX8500 from LG; and Zune from Microsoft; i. Beat p! nk from TrekStore; and SMPV-4GBTA digital media player from Jensen.

Tsera seeks a court order to all 23 defendants to "pay a compulsory future royalty" for the privilege of using touchpads in their devices.

In addition, the company has singled out Apple for special censure; saying that even after knowing about the patent since September 2004, Apple "has been and continues to be willful, wanton, and deliberate, and carried out with full knowledge and awareness of the Plaintiff's patent rights and without license from Plaintiff."