Extensive multi-touch patent Apple has been temporarily declared invalid

The US patent office USPTO has invalidated a major patent owned by Apple. The patent in question describes technology for multitouch and was used by the company, among other things, to sue Samsung.

According to Foss Patents go it concerns the patent with number 7,479,949, with Steve Jobs listed first in the list of inventors. The patent is therefore also referred to as the ‘Steve Jobs’ patent. It describes a technology for user input via a touch screen. Among other things, the patent includes the ability of iOS to respond when a user scrolls vertically in a document, describes Ars Technica. It also includes multi-directional movement within a document and the interface’s ability to distinguish between swiping or zooming images.

It is one of the important patents that Apple uses in its legal battle with Android manufacturers. Samsung and Motorola, among others, have been sued for infringement of the said patent. The International Trade Commission previously declared the patent valid and then ruled that Samsung infringed it.

The USPTO has invalidated all twenty claims described in the multitouch patent. It is still a provisional ruling, which means that the decision may be reversed, in whole or in part. The USPTO will now take a series of steps to re-examine the patent. However, because all claims have been declared invalid, Apple will have to pull out all the stops to convince the authority of the validity.

It is the second time in a short time that an illustrious Apple patent has been declared invalid. In October, the USPTO announced that the so-called rubber banding patent, which describes a scrolling technology for mobile phones, is invalid.