“Samsung on Wednesday asked a judge to halt the Apple damages retrial, currently under jury deliberation, after the US Patent and Trademark Office said an Apple patent might not be valid,” Shara Tibken reports for CNET. “According to court documents, the USPTO questioned whether Apple patent No. 7,844,915, also known as ‘pinch to zoom,’ is a valid patent. The ‘915 patent covers technology that can distinguish whether a user is scrolling with one finger versus using several touch points at once for a pinch-to-zoom action. The Patent Office has been re-examining the claims of the ‘915 patent, and Apple recently responded to the agency’s questions. However, in the document filed by the USPTO on Wednesday, the group said that it “respectfully disagrees” with Apple’s claims about the technology and that Apple’s arguments “are not persuasive.””
Tibken reports, “The USPTO comments don’t invalidate the ‘915 patent but mean that Apple will have to provide more information and argue for the validity of the patent. In the meantime, Samsung has filed an emergency motion with Judge Lucy Koh to stay the case. ‘This PTO decision calls into question the entire jury verdict in this trial,’ Samsung said in its filing.”
“Samsung also made a similar motion-to-stay request in April following other USPTO actions,” Tibken reports. “At that time, Koh denied the request. However, she said the company could renew its motion if the USPTO issued a ‘final office action’ that found a particular claim of the ‘915 patent invalid and if it doesn’t reopen the prosecution of the ‘915 re-examination following Apple’s response to the final office action.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: We love the smell of Samsung desperation in the afternoon.
More info about USPTO SOP and the ‘915 patent here.
Related articles:
Bad news for Android: U.S. patent office confirms all 20 claims of ‘Steve Jobs patent’ – October 17, 2013
Huge win for Apple at USPTO: Key claims of rubber-banding patent confirmed – June 13, 2013
Apple can seek sales ban on Samsung phones, judges rule – November 20, 2013
Desperate Samsung urges mistrial citing racism in Apple lawyer’s remark – November 19, 2013
Apple’s $380 million case against Samsung now in jury’s hands – November 19, 2013
Apple makes case for why it deserves $379 million more from convicted patent infringer Samsung – November 19, 2013
Closing arguments in Apple v. Samsung retrial – November 19, 2013
FFS if it wasn’t valid why did you grant the Patent in the first place?
Exactly. I rant on and on about it below…
Reading the comments under the full article on the linked page was almost as horrible as reading the headline. Wow.
Samdung just pumped a few million into USPTO me thinks.
Haha… classic MDN. Oh, and I agree!
I heard a few weeks ago that the Patent office did in fact approve all of these patents. It’s just another desperate attempt by Samsung to delay yet again this case. Koh should not approve this and finish this once and for all. Fine Samsung the 350 million and close this case up.
So the appeals court has already ruled that the pinch and zoom patent is quite valid and has handed down Judge Koh to let Apple get there ban on Samsung products. So I don’t know how Samsung can again say that the pinch and zoom patent is invalid when the appeals court has ruled it quite valid.
Samsung is just assuming the Law is an arse (or should that be ass).
The concept of pinch to zoom (which to me has always seemed misnamed – wouldn’t spread to zoom be more accurate – scatological but more accurate?) shouldn’t be patentable, but the technology behind determining whether the user is trying to scroll or zoom (or do a myriad other of multi-touch gestures) should be.
The only patents I like are patent leather shoes.
And, Ban is a name of a deodorant.
Samsung’s stench keeps on-a-growing. They only wish their market share was as strong.
Samsung’s motion has no legal merit. The judgment in the case has already been made by a jury, that Samsung violated Apple’s patents. There is nothing to alter because the judge cannot change a jury’s findings of fact. The only argument is over how much Samsung must pay Apple, so this silly, desperate motion will be dismissed swiftly and accordingly.
SumDung lied as well about Apple’s options ….
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/11/apple-says-samsungs-stalling-strategy.html
…after the US Patent and Trademark Office said an Apple patent might not be valid
Yeah, the patent the US Patent and Trademark Office approved years back.
Again I rant: Wouldn’t it be FAIR and JUST for our idiotic US Patent and Trademark Office to be forced to pay ALL LEGAL FEES for patent disputes? Then maybe they’d DO THEIR JOBS. Imagine that. 💡
Actually, one of the biggest problems with the USPTO is that Congress gave them a HUGE job by allowing ridiculous things to count as patentable. Then they only partially funded the USPTO, so a big part of the USPTO budget comes from fees paid by patent applicants.
Result: a USPTO that views patent applicants as its customers, instead of being suspicious of them and protecting the public from illegitimately-granted monopolies over ideas that should be in the public domain. Add in the tiny amount of time given to patent examiners to figure out if something was already known, the expansive realm of technologies that examiner is supposed to just know about, and you end up with a huge collection of patents that do the opposite of the Constitutional justification to “promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts.”
Do Less With Less. That old story.
The US Senate is specifically to blame for the problems the US Postal Service has been having. The Senate is their boss. I’m not surprised to see similar incompetence from the Congress re: USPTO.
So I wonder, in our current age of ‘Screw Thy Customer’ in biznizz, if the US Congress causing these problems because they are too closely attempting to emulate biznizz, as opposed to actual professional grade business.
Never mind. It’s all about money and doing things on either The Cheap or The Bribe. Then toss in the Neo-Con’s sick philosophy of ‘Starve The Beast’ and literally everything in reach goes to hell. The Crazies.
SamDung lied to the court, oops ……
http://www.fosspatents.com/2013/11/apple-says-samsungs-stalling-strategy.html