A man in Florida is suing Apple for $10 billion (£7.5 billion), claiming Apple stole his idea when it released the iPhone nine years ago.

Thomas S Ross filed a patent for an “electronic reading device” (ERD), a rectangular, hand-held gadget with a screen, in 1992.

His lawsuit says he was “the first to file a device so designed and aggregated as to have created a novel combination of media and communication tools… whose identity was, since then, hijacked and exploited by Apple's iPhones, iPods, iPads and others”.