U.S. Patent Office upholds Apple multitouch patent

Apple has won an important victory in its longstanding, seemingly never-ending patent disputes with its closest competitors.

According to a report by The Verge, the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently upheld Apple's patent for its multitouch screen, used in popular products like the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This capability is a key feature of these devices, allowing them to understand, for example, that a slightly diagonal downward swipe should still scroll a web page straight downward.

Last December, an initial ruling by the USPTO had actually found the patent to be invalid. However, this most recent decision by the government reverses that ruling.

Partly due to its importance, this piece of intellectual property has been at the forefront of legal battles with Samsung and Motorola. Both make devices that use the same or similar technology, prompting lawsuits from Apple. For example, this patent was one of the many that prompted an import ban on some Samsung products. As this blog wrote at the time, the White House chose to let this ban go through, even though it vetoed a similar ban that would have applied to some older Apple products just a few months before.

It is not yet clear how difficult these decisions will be for Samsung, which must now take care not to sell infringing technology in the United States. But this story does reinforce one important lesson: Businesses that deal heavily in intellectual property must invest in strong legal protection. A Phoenix business attorney has the experience to provide that service.

Categorised in: Intellectual Property Law

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