The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has published a preliminarily ruling that Apple’s iPhone patent popularly referred to as “the Steve Jobs patent” is invalid in its entirety upon reexamination, reports “FOSS Patents” (http://tinyurl.com/but8ewy).
This is the second incident of this kind. In late October, a first Office action in a reexamination proceeding stated the preliminary conclusion that all 20 claims of Apple’s rubber-banding (overscroll bounce) patent are invalid. The “Steve Jobs patent” (number 7479949) is for a “touch screen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics.”
The patent has also been asserted against Motorola. .S. Circuit Judge Richard A. Posner declared large parts of the patent invalid and identified only some minor potential infringement on Motorola’s part that he decided would not warrant injunctive relief even if Apple prevailed on whatever little was left of its related claims,” notes “FOSS Patents.”