Elan says the touchscreen technology used in Apple's MacBook, iPhone and iPod touch infringe on two of its patents. It is seeking an injunction that would stop Apple from producing, using and selling those products.

Elan owns the rights to technology that allows Apple's products to detect the position of a finger on a touchscreen or touchpad, the company said. Palm recently came under fire from Apple, which sued Palm for using multi-touch technology in its Palm Pre smartphone.

Capacitive Touchpad is at the core of Elan's technology and, since the release of Apple's iPhone in 2007, Elan's Multi-Finger touch interface has received much attention.

Proactive Protection

Elan's suit against Apple comes just two months after Apple was awarded a multi-touch patent. Just after Apple was granted patent 949, Elan said the award would not have any bearing on Elan or its multi-touch technology, called Multi-Finger.

"Although [Apple's] patent comprises of 20 items covering software, firmware and memory storage , its scope is actually limited within the establishment of the one- and two-dimensional commands mechanism," the company had said in a statement. "Simply speaking, it emphasizes more on one- or two-dimensional commands finger gesture recognition rather than about multi-touch technology. Hence, to make things unmistakably clear, having a multi-touch feature cannot be interpreted as an infringement of the 949 patent."

Elan's statement didn't clear its own technology from patent infringement and it also sent out a quiet warning. "Aside from continuing to provide total solutions to its customers, Elan is also actively protecting its IP rights to safeguard the company's and its customers' interests," the company said.

Elan's February statement added that there was "no conflict between the multi-touch technologies used by Elan and Apple."

Not the First Time

This isn't the first time Elan has filed a patent-infringement suit in the U.S. In March 2006, Elantech Devices, then a wholly-owned subsidiary of Elan Microelectronics, filed suit against Synaptics in U.S. federal court in San Francisco.

Elan claimed that Synaptics touchpads infringed on Elan's patent. Synaptics responded by counter suing, claiming Elan infringed on four of its patents. The court decided some of Synaptics' touchpads infringed on Elan's patent and stopped Synaptics from selling those products in the U.S.

In October, Synaptics and Elan agreed to settle the dispute, dismissed both pending patent lawsuits, and asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to dismiss the court order.