Apple granted significant Multi-Touch™ patents

“The US Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 24 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple.

“Today’s first granted patent report highlights three out of five important Multi-Touch patent wins,” Purcher reports. “The three key patents cover such matters as multitouch auto scanning, multipoint touchscreens and Apple’s 3D curved substrate lamination process that integrates multitouch technology into their Magic Mouse.”

Purcher writes, “It’s a huge day for Apple on the Multi-touch patent front.”

Much more in the full article, including Apple’s patent application diagrams and illustrations, here.

Related article:
Multi-Touch™ is a trademark of Apple Inc. – May 29, 2008

12 Comments

      1. That it happened on Steve’s watch is what surprises me very, very much. I’m sure he was aware how painfully slow the patent system is (taking years to grant patents, then years again to defend them in court), but that he just let Google’s OS pass iOS without any pre-emptive measures is just difficult to understand.

        1. Well
          Really, if Eric A Mole hadn’t seen an early prototype and had to start copying when Apple disclosed publicly the iPhone, then it would have taken much more time for Android to become an effective competitor and only at that point would Apple have needed the patents. I think it’s very plain how much time this takes, just look at iPad, Google is struggling mightily to come up with a tablet os, because they didn’t have the tremendous head start that Eric A Mole gave them on the phone.

      2. … market share to make a go of it. They will, however, have to start backing out any tech covered by those patents. Or start paying license fees. Those fees being “modest”, of course. As that is only “fair” (see the latest suits “won” by Apple).
        No worries, this just means Moto can’t sue Apple over these.

      3. cashxx, market share for portable devices like cell phones can disappear very rapidly. Such devices have a useful life of a few years, at most, so it doesn’t take very long for the market to respond to changes in customer preferences.

        Modern examples: Nokia, Motorola, and RIM

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