Apple That

You’re probably tired of hearing about Apple patent news by now, but I promise this one is different. How so, you may ask? Well, this piece of information isn’t about Apple suing some other smartphone company for patent infringement, it’s about one of Apple’s very own patents coming under fire by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office following a re-examination.

The patent covers touch-screen technology for Apple, though the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently ruled that all of the 20 claims included in the patent were invalid. The decision, however, is not final so things could still change in favor of Apple or against the Cupertino patent suit prince even more.

This is the second such Apple patent to be deemed completely invalid by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office following re-examination. A similar ruling for an Apple patent, one that covered the tech giant’s rubber-banding bounce effect, came in late October and is also subject to appeal.

One thing that is of great note is that late Apple CEO and Co-Founder Steve Jobs is listed as the chief inventor, along with 24 others, of the touch-related technology that is listed in U.S. Patent No. 7,479,949. Apple filed for the patent back in April of 2008, which was granted only nine months later. In addition to that, this patent was one of three used against Motorola in a recent patent suit, which was tossed out of court last week.

This could be a little bit of Karma coming Apple’s way as the company has been very pro patent lawsuit these days. Apple has gone after big name companies like Samsung, Motorola and even Microsoft in patent lawsuit cases, only achieving victory (as of now) over Samsung.

Source: CNET – Another Apple touch-screen patent in trouble