“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.
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