Apples upcoming iPhone has made Quantum Research consider a lawsuit against the company.

Apple iPhone awoke considerable attention when it was launched in January, because of its name, design and touchscreen. Subsequently, these areas has been hot potatoes for Apple. The company was almost immediately sued by Cisco for the iPhone name, which Cisco has owned for years. The case is still not settled, and Apple is coming with an answer this week.

Many has also noticed the similarity between iPhone and LGs Prade-phone. According to Telecom Korea, Woo-Young Kwak, leader of LGs research- and development-lab, commented this during 3GSM conference.

Now, Duncan Bryan, licensedirector of british Quantum Research Group says they consider a lawsuit against Apple because of violations to patents connected to iPhone

Quantum Research already has a lawsuit against Apple. This lawsuit was promoted in 2005 and is about the control wheel on some iPod models. According to Electronics Weekly, the lawsuit was not known until this year.

There are several things that make the Britsh company study the phone thorougly. The description of iPhone says it uses a touchsystem with conductors on the back. It has sensors to tell if the phone is hold close to the ear. This is QR functinalit, says Bryan to Electronics Weekly.

Quantum Research has patent on a technology for capacitive sensing transmitting of charges, which the company now investigate if Apple has used in the touchscreen. If so, Apple has violated the patent, which is licensed to Motorola and St Microelectronics. The mentioned control wheel is also linked to this patent.

See a demonstration of iPhone from MacWorld.