What felt like five minutes ago, Apple was hit with a lawsuit about an exploding iPod. This time it is the offering of eBooks that is getting the company in trouble, again.

Swiss communications firm, Monec Holding, has reportedly filed suit in a Virginia district court. Monec accuses the iPhone maker of "patent infringement, unfair trade practices, monopolization, and tortious interference for allegedly treading on its January 2002 patent No. 6,335,678 titled 'Electronic device, preferably an electronic book.'" Monec is "a leading innovator for mobile, globally usable communication solutions...with user-friendly products and pioneering solutions, Monec provides companies and users with secure, wireless access solutions which offer highest degree of flexibility, functionality, speed and independence."

The seriousness about the filing is Monec claiming that Apple violated their patent. Reasons for the lawsuit suggest that Apple violated it via the development of a "lightweight" electronic device with a "touch-screen" LCD display. This having the "dimensions approximately one page of a book can be illustrated at normal size, this display being integrated in a flat, frame-like housing." There have been eBook applications available for a while although the lawsuit has only come to light now.

[via CNET]