Lawsuit Filed Against Microsoft, Apple and Google over Thumbnail Patent Rights

This must be the biggest event in the decade or should we say Century?

Microsoft, Google and Apple and all the other major software providers and creators have been charged with violating the US patent number: 7,346,850(System and method for iconic software environment management). This accusation had been made by one Cygnus System which claims that it had developed the thumbnail feature in the start but all the major software vendors have started violating the patent which describes in detail that :

This is a method and system used to store, navigate and access files within an operating system through the use of a graphical thumbnail representing the video display of the the current document within the active application.

This lawsuit is the biggest blow in the software world as most of the applications currently do support this feature and blowing the trumpet at this time means the avoidance of thumbnail feature in the Windows Explorer, Apple’s Cover Flow and Google’s Chrome web browser, which is similar to the kinds of Safari.

Cygnus lawsuit particularly mentions the use of the iPhone’s file previews, and Safari’s browser thumbnails. Cygnus is gonna be rich if the court agrees that surely this is a defamation case.

Interesting news is  that the original patent was filed in the year 1998, expanded upon in 2001, and finally granted in 2008. So, does anyone know what took it so long to be accepted? Might be waiting for the boom time.