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Steve Jobs Patent On iPhone Declared Invalid

Posted by timothy on from the too-soon dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Apple's most famous multitouch software patents are increasingly coming under invalidation pressure. First the rubber-banding patent and now a patent that Apple's own lawyers planned to introduce to a Chicago jury as 'the Jobs patent.' U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949 covers a method for distinguishing vertical and horizontal gestures from diagonal movements based on an initial angle of movement. For example, everything up to a slant of 27 degrees would be considered vertical or horizontal, and everything else diagonal. The patent office now seems to think that Apple didn't invent the concept of 'heuristics' after all."

16 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. why was it even granted? by MickyTheIdiot · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Good riddance to this patent. It's yet another example of how the patent office will let just about anything slip by right now.

    If putting ONE widget/idea/whatever on a machine is patentable, then putting multiple "things" on a machine is obvious. "Multitouch" is the same a "touch."

    Another one: If putting wifi on a computer is patentable, then putting wifi on any computer-like device (tablets, phones, anything using a processor) is obvious.

    The trolls are maybe less than half the problem. Letting these companies patent the kitchen sink just because there is a trivial change is a huge part. And they won't pay of examiners that actually know what they are doing because it means a pointy headed administrator will have to be paid less to do it.

  2. As a satisfied owner of Apple products... by ilsaloving · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a (up till now) satisfied owner of Apple products, all I can say is: Good.

    Maybe if they lose enough of these stupid patents, they'll start thinking less about suing the world into oblivion and go back to doing what made them the company they are now: Making products that delight their customers.

    From recent events, it's clear that Apple forgot that part somewhere along the line.

    1. Re:As a satisfied owner of Apple products... by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Agreed.

      I'm no Apple fan at all. But there's no denying that they make/made a kind of irrisistible candy that no one could actually duplicate. It was stupid of them to think anyone else was a threat.

      I see lots of things wrong with Apple's products. It's not free enough for me. It's terrific for other people though and that's more than enough to keep them in business though. The problem is they never seem to be satisfied when they have "enough."

  3. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by gagol · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IFF there is a god, I am pretty sure he/she/it is against hoarding cash like crazy.

    --
    Tomorrow is another day...
  4. This is the price of going "thermonuclear." by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Apparently Steve never learned the actual lesson and message behind the movie "War Games." There are no winners in thermonuclear war. The only way to win is not to play.

    I believe Jobs would have halted this as it got more ugly and apparent that Apple would lose. But since he died, there was no halting it and I suspect anyone at Apple who would want to "go against god's... err Jobs's will" would be branded a heretic or a traitor or something like that.

    Apple is already losing the war over the touch screen smart phone. They are losing their intellectual property as well. They are causing harm to everyone in the industry and that includes the consumers whether they use Apple or Android or even something else.

    The sooner this is concluded the better. Samsung needs a new trial. Apple's IP needs to be resolved as to what is valid and what isn't. It needs to be settled.

    1. Re:This is the price of going "thermonuclear." by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Not gonna do all of that. I will, however invite you to review the market trends. The interest in iPad, iPod, iPhone have declined. Perhaps the market is saturated already. The stock market shows their value dropping. The intellectual property is also being lost as a direct result of their assaults. Their secret deals with other handset makers are being brought to light and weakening their cases against others.

      Another point of failure is that while initially people were quite scared of Apple's thunder and initial success with their claims backed by doctored images and the like. They somehow won some injunctive relief along the way. But after much legal scrutiny, it is being shown that injunctive relief is inappropriate. Apple has yet to show irreparable harm which is a requirement for injunctive relief. If money can make them whole, then they are ineligible for injunctive relief.

      Also, Apple did not invent the multi-touch anything. They didn't invent the ARM processor or invent the first devices using it... on the internet. We get it. Your a rabid, mouth foaming fan. But you really need to revisit your beliefs and balance them against the facts. It makes you look... well... you decide what it looks like when someone's beliefs lie in contrast to reality.

      I think the most significant argument Apple has offered is "trade dress." But the problem with the argument they are making is that I don't think any device so far is similar enough to Apple's to be call infringing. I think Apple's devices are uniquely and unmistakably Apple's. And at least a judge in the UK courts agrees with me on that and has been successful at driving that point home. (I am sure you followed that story right? And their childish handling of the judge's orders?) So even in this, Apple is losing.

      And the judges in cases being made all over the world are comparing notes and all that. Did you notice how the case of Samsung vs. Apple in Japan was getting discovery through the US courts? Apple thought it could file suits in various nations all over the world and collect different judgements, but it turns out every different loss it becoming a limitation on all of the other cases being filed everywhere else.

      Apple started out big. They are no longer. Their cases are failing. Their market share is failing. The lines outside of Apple stores have all but disappeared.

      I know you think that become I don't love Apple that I must hate Apple. I don't. I own and use a mac mini and my wife uses a mac pro for her web development and design work. I like the devices very much but I recognize their limitations. And the limitations of Apple's stuff are easy to recognize. I can simply do more in many cases than I can do more with other platforms than I can with Apple's. For example, can you connect an iPad to a bluetooth OBD2 module so you can get data from your car? I can with Linux, Android and Windows. Apple had decided that iHandheld devices can only use bluetooth for hands-free purposes. Why? I don't really care why. I just know that I can't do what I want to with Apple's gear. I can only do what is the intersection between what I want and what Apple wants. And that's a serious limitation.

  5. Re:Only 'preliminarily' invalid... by jkrise · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Also, the patent office needs to be shut down.

    Also, a complete rejection of all claims of a given patent is potentially more devastating than one affecting only some claims.

    All of 20 claims mentioned in the patent and issued by the USTPO have been rejected. Does this not prove that the issuing office has no right to exist in the first place? Millions have been lost litigating this absurdity.
    -
    Apple would lose two iconic patents, but it would still have thousands of other patents, including hundreds of multitouch patents .

    More evidence that the patent office should suffer the 'thermonuclear' treatment that Steve Jobs spoke about. The two so called iconic patents have been completely rubbished; but hundreds more yet to come. So this Florian scourge is not just happy that millions have already been sunk to the lawyers and courts with 2 patents; he is sitting smug in his seat dreaming about how hundreds more such patents will keep him and so called 'patent-experts' like him, employed for life.

    --
    If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
  6. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by White+Flame · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Patents like this are incredibly stupid. It ostensibly doesn't matter who filed them, except that the higher profile the owner is, the more damage it does. The downfall of the patent should be celebrated.

  7. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I can't think of anything great that Jobs did. He didn't invent or build anything, high level direction doesn't count for squat in my book. He was the best marketing droid/pitchman of recent history, but that just a shitty thing to be around for the rest of humanity.

  8. Re:I hear millions of ifans by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming. Apple has made most of it's billions by utilizing slave labor in third world countries. Suddenly, they are worried about American jobs? The few jobs they are moving to America are nothing more than a publicity gambit, IMHO.

    If I had a few tens of thousands of people employed directly or indirectly, and I decided to move several hundreds of those jobs to the United States, the total impact on anyone's economy would be negligible. And, the cost to me would have little impact. I would still have almost all my work performed by slave labor in third world countries.

    --
    "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  9. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Dang, Jobs who died richer than belief, and started a crusade against Google for "stealing" something Jobs never owned, gets seated next to Allah, Buddha and Jesus. But Einstein, Tesla, Maxwell, Newton, and countless others who actually contributed something useful to the world never get mentioned...

  10. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by narcc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That story really puts things in perspective, doesn't it?

    Woz: A brilliant engineer and a genuinely good person.

    Jobs: A liar who will happily screw over even his closest friends to make a buck.

    Which one does the media celebrate?

    --
    Required reading for internet skeptics
  11. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 5, Insightful

    IFF there is a god, I am pretty sure he/she/it is against hoarding cash like crazy.

    So to find out whether there is a god, we just have to find out whether you are pretty sure he/she/it is against hoarding cash like crazy. :-)

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  12. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by maxwell+demon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The highest market valued one, but certainly not the most valuable one.

    --
    The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
  13. Re:What wrong has Steve done to you? by rtb61 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The one that most closely resembles all the other media personalities (make believe personalties). Now I wonder why?

    --
    Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
  14. Re:I hear millions of ifans by PlusFiveTroll · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't worry, you can keep slave jobs here in the U.S.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Prison_Industries