
"Samsung's got to be pretty happy right about now, after learning that the US Patent and Trademark Office has filed an initial ruling
declaring Apple's rubber-banding patent invalid, as reported by FOSS Patents. The news was good enough that Samsung decided to share it with friends, that is, if US Federal Judge Lucy Koh can be considered a friend. According to the ruling, which Florian Mueller says isn't final, all 20 claims of Apple's patent (No. 7,469,381) are now invalid, including one that the iPhone maker had leveraged against Samsung in their recent legal showdown. The office found that Apple's invention was either anticipated by prior art (from Lira and Ording) or, in some cases, simply obvious." One down, 93485763827563856 to go.
Member since:
2008-09-21
Yet still the patent was a win for Apple and cost Samsung already serious money. What would be needed right now is to also take actions out of this. Apple needs to pay compensation for all possible damage done by using those invalid patent(s) against competition. Only then it may have an effect otherwise companies continue to ask for patent-protection for trivial things, the overworked patent office grants them and a new weapon is born that can be used with no limits AT LEAST till invalidated and with NO consequences. Just keep on to get more obvious trivial patents granted then invalidated and keep the invalidators busy enough to have enough time left to do serious damage.
Edited 2012-10-24 00:13 UTC