You know you've made in the tablet market when you get sued. The Amazon Kindle Fire hasn't even been released, but it already has its first patent infringement lawsuit against it.

Smartphone Technologies charges Amazon with copying its touch-sensitive screens in the Kindle Fire. The suit filed last Friday in a Texas Eastern District Court would be the first patent lawsuit against the Kindle Fire. Smartphone Technologies has four generic patents involving touch screens, including one where the touch screen is used to enter commands to a tablet and another that involves storing calendars on a PDA.

Smartphone Technologies is a familiar name in the tech industry since it has sued the giants in the field, namely Apple and Research in Motion, for touch screen patent infringements. It is reportedly owned by Acacia Research which has a reputation for patent infringement litigation. In 2007, Acacia sued Novell and Red Hat for allegedly infringing on the method of sharing workloads among remotely located computers. The suits were declared invalid and worthless.

Amazon hasn't released any statement about the lawsuit yet, but it shouldn't be too worried. The patent suits are far too general and could be directed at most the tablet manufacturers. With the Kindle Fire reportedly topping sales expectations, a little patent lawsuit is just another rite of passage for Amazon.

The Kindle Fire will ship out on Nov. 15 for $199.