Apple's multitouch 'Steve Jobs patent' revalidated in full by USPTO
Some nine months after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office issued a tentative first Office action invalidating an Apple multitouch patent credited in part to cofounder Steve Jobs, the body has reversed its initial determination to confirm all claims as patentable.
Source: USPTO via FOSS Patents
The USPTO's decision wraps up the examination -- and subsequent re-examination -- of Apple's U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949, which received an ex part?, or anonymous, request to review in December 2012. It is thought that Samsung, Google, or both challenged the patent as part of the companies' ongoing legal struggle against Apple.
Citing a Sept. 4 re-examination certificate, FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller notes the plan to challenge appears to have backfired, as the Steve Jobs patent is now stronger than it was prior to the examination. Apple's in-court efforts should also be bolstered by the confirmation, with Android makers leveraging lawsuits against the company now having to contend with another strong utility patent covering now-commonly used technology.
In particular, Samsung faces an uphill battle after being dealt a significant blow from the U.S. International Trade Commission, which issued an import ban against a number of the company's products after they were found to have infringed on Apple patents. Apple recently filed an appeal to broaden the scope of that case to include currently sold Samsung models, and the now-confirmed patent could add to the company's argument.
The Steve Jobs patent is also being asserted against Motorola in a separate lawsuit.
Titled "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics," the '949 patent is a broad, sweeping property covering functional aspects of multitouch screens like those found in many smart devices, like the iPhone and iPad.
In addition to the current cases Apple is fighting against Android device makers, the property was successfully leveraged against Samsung in the Apple v. Samsung jury trial. Among the inventors credited for creating the patent are Jobs, former iOS chief Scott Forstall, Bas Ording and Imran Chaudrhi, among other Apple innovators.
Source: USPTO via FOSS Patents
The USPTO's decision wraps up the examination -- and subsequent re-examination -- of Apple's U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949, which received an ex part?, or anonymous, request to review in December 2012. It is thought that Samsung, Google, or both challenged the patent as part of the companies' ongoing legal struggle against Apple.
Citing a Sept. 4 re-examination certificate, FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller notes the plan to challenge appears to have backfired, as the Steve Jobs patent is now stronger than it was prior to the examination. Apple's in-court efforts should also be bolstered by the confirmation, with Android makers leveraging lawsuits against the company now having to contend with another strong utility patent covering now-commonly used technology.
In particular, Samsung faces an uphill battle after being dealt a significant blow from the U.S. International Trade Commission, which issued an import ban against a number of the company's products after they were found to have infringed on Apple patents. Apple recently filed an appeal to broaden the scope of that case to include currently sold Samsung models, and the now-confirmed patent could add to the company's argument.
The Steve Jobs patent is also being asserted against Motorola in a separate lawsuit.
Titled "Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics," the '949 patent is a broad, sweeping property covering functional aspects of multitouch screens like those found in many smart devices, like the iPhone and iPad.
In addition to the current cases Apple is fighting against Android device makers, the property was successfully leveraged against Samsung in the Apple v. Samsung jury trial. Among the inventors credited for creating the patent are Jobs, former iOS chief Scott Forstall, Bas Ording and Imran Chaudrhi, among other Apple innovators.
Comments
Sounds like Mulit-touch will become a Standard-essential patent. Probably a good revenue stream for Apple.
I so hope they drop the hammer on you. Maybe for once you'll realize that making money by stealing other people's work is not a good long-term business goal.
A##h##es.
Hey Schmidt, it's now a lot bigger than that ... LMAO
Time for Apple to ramp up and deliver the coup de grâce.
Sounds like Mulit-touch will become a Standard-essential patent. Probably a good revenue stream for Apple.
Why?
What is "standards essential" and who will oversee the "standard"?
Google can go back to the original Android released in the US without multitouch and start over.
Nokia, HTC, Sony and others will be happy, they cross licensed.
As Samsung full well knows having contemptuously and illegally obtained the license agreements from Google's douchebag puppet law firm.
The "noose" is turning to rusty barbed wire,
Sounds like Mulit-touch will become a Standard-essential patent. Probably a good revenue stream for Apple.
Bzzzt! Apple never offered up the patented technology as a standard. In fact, Apple did just the opposite and has been forced to resist and battle in the courts to avoid settling illegal standards-essential lawsuits brought by third parties, like Samsung and Motorola Mobility, who wanted licenses to Apple's non-standards essential patents.
There's always a stylus to use by others.
Multi-stylus pinch-to-zoom! Chopstick interface.
Sounds like Mulit-touch will become a Standard-essential patent. Probably a good revenue stream for Apple.
You probably do not understand the concept of a standard essential patent. A standard essential patent refers to a commonly adopted standard whereby participating parties give patents essential to a standard to a standards body so that their patents will be included in the standard. When a patent is included in a standard anybody can use it without permission in exchange for paying reasonably and nondiscriminatory license rate. Wi-fi, 3G, LTE are some examples of standards. The benefit to the patent holders are they do not have to develop competing standards and they get a larger pool of parties interested in licensing the patents. Giving patents to a standard body is voluntary.
Apple's multi-touch patent is not part of any standard. It can exclude others from using it or demand higher licensing fees.
Sounds like Mulit-touch will become a Standard-essential patent. Probably a good revenue stream for Apple.
You know when a patent becomes "standard-essential"? When a company determined that there was not much value for the patent to stand by itself and offered it to be part of a broad "standard" so it can make more money from selling components that support such "standard"
For example, Motorola was on the MPEG standard committee when it was in the semiconductor business that makes MPEG encoders/decoders, and Apple have also contributed patents as it makes QuickTime.
Apple will gain nothing by contributing this multi-touch patent to a standard, if there is one.
Boom!!!! Don't even offer to cross-license to Android and Samsung. Just tell them to figure out another way to do touchscreen on their phones. Maybe they'll go back to flip phones or a trackball. They should call it Steve Job's Thermonuclear patent
Note that he suggested it will become, not that it ever was.
Originally posted by cpsro
Multi-stylus pinch-to-zoom! Chopstick interface.
This! Best comment of the day...
Could Apple realistically require Samsung et al to remove capacitive multi-touch from existing and future devices?
Samsung is already pushing its stylus on the Galaxy Note, maybe they'll go stylus-only so they can avoid agreeing to the anti-cloning terms Apple asks for.
How does stylus replace multi-touch - Except as the other gentleman suggested chopsticks (Korean version), but it will still be multi-touch pinch. Oh! Maybe Samsung will do the air-waving pinch!