USPTO Declares 'The Steve Jobs Patent' Entirely Invalid

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Whoops! The United States Patent and Trademark Office has put the smack down on Apple...again.

For the second time in less than two months, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued a first Office action tentatively declaring a key Apple multitouch patent invalid. In late October, a first Office action in a reexamination proceeding stated the preliminary conclusion that all 20 claims of Apple's rubber-banding (overscroll bounce) patent are invalid.
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Hmmm, wonder if this will have any additional impact on the current stock decrease that Apple is seeing?
 
Apple will try to patent the steering wheel next. The iPod had a wheel, ya know. Genius.
 
I'll be honest. I sort of kinda of hate Apple. I hate the way they do business, mostly and their "fans" can be stupid annoying -- though I guess that could go all ways. Having said that, I hope Apple gets their shit together and starts innovating instead of pinning their hopes on patents and lawsuits. I mean, they will always float because of the proverbial sheep but if they fail to innovate, prices of other smartphones will go up and that's bad for me.

Competition.
 
If they actually innovate, I'm all for them succeeding. That's one of the big things that make me dislike Apple... that and their fans thinking that they are infallible.
 
So someone is finally telling them they can't patent vague shit anymore, like gestures?
And the Steve Jobs' patents weren't his anyways, just stuff he passed off on his own.

Remember, great artsists steal.
 
Seriously awesome, its about time the patent office stop being bent over the table like a bunch of bitches.
 
benzino_86 said:
So someone is finally telling them they can't patent vague shit anymore, like gestures?
And the Steve Jobs' patents weren't his anyways, just stuff he passed off on his own.

Remember, great artsists steal.
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I wish this was true earlier.... Wizards of the Coast patented turning the card to signify it's been used.
 
Here's what I find odd.....


The USPTO is the one HANDING OUT ALL THESE RETARDED PATENTS TO APPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE (patent on a rectangle / patent on turning pages).

....now they are invalidating the same patents they gave them.


The patent system is seriously, seriously broken. :(
 
hurray for the USPTO... although this shit would never be an issue if their examiners didn't fucking rubber stamp every patent thrown in by high profile clients (like Apple)
 
Steve said:
Here's what I find odd.....


The USPTO is the one HANDING OUT ALL THESE RETARDED PATENTS TO APPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE (patent on a rectangle / patent on turning pages).

....now they are invalidating the same patents they gave them.


The patent system is seriously, seriously broken. :(
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I suspect with the amount they have backed up waiting to be approved, they just started approving most without checking validity of them.
 
Curious if the Gov't issues a refund when they reject a patent they issued. But echoing the above comments, you'd think that it's cheaper to make sure patents are valid before being issued. But wtf do I know.
 
I think one of the reason, and this was told to me by someone I know, that so many of these patents are passed is because the patent examiners have to back up their claims if they don't think it's worthy of a patent with documents and such with a possible law suit battle.

They're probably one, too lazy to read it, 2, too lazy to denounce it because it increase their work load, or three, they're paid off. All of which is extremely likely.
 
potency said:
Curious if the Gov't issues a refund when they reject a patent they issued. But echoing the above comments, you'd think that it's cheaper to make sure patents are valid before being issued. But wtf do I know.
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Now the courts need to issue refunds to everyone that's been sued over said patents.
 
maxius said:
with out jobs apple is doomed
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Without Jobs, Apple is still Apple. A marketing company putting out product refreshes every year at top dollar prices and misleading customers into thinking they're buying something completely unique.

This patent was filed under Jobs and him being alive wouldn't have kept it from being overturned. The company now is still behaving exactly as it did under Jobs. People are just so blindingly stupid as to believe that nothing lackluster ever happened under his reign.
 
^Almost true... but Jobs.... did a good job of persuading people.... which did not carry over to the rest of the company.

Apparently the rest of them never took a basic speech class, that or they don't know how to use what they learned.
 
What I want to know is what would happen to the shit who approved this patent in the first place? Would he/she be fired or promoted?
 
techrat said:
Without Jobs, Apple is still Apple. A marketing company putting out product refreshes every year at top dollar prices and misleading customers into thinking they're buying something completely unique.

This patent was filed under Jobs and him being alive wouldn't have kept it from being overturned. The company now is still behaving exactly as it did under Jobs. People are just so blindingly stupid as to believe that nothing lackluster ever happened under his reign.
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You see a ton of this crap. Can you actually prove that? Show us where some idiot was completely unable to think for themselves and was totally and completely blinded.Go on. Do it. Then show us that this is only specific to Apple.

People also get real pissy when they find out their company of choice does the same thing. Shame.
 
oshia86 said:
You see a ton of this crap. Can you actually prove that? Show us where some idiot was completely unable to think for themselves and was totally and completely blinded.Go on. Do it. Then show us that this is only specific to Apple.

People also get real pissy when they find out their company of choice does the same thing. Shame.
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I can do it with 20+ sales managers at my company. They just wanted the latest and greatest iphones for the image it gave them
 
I used to think people on [H] generally knew their stuff... and then I read the patent threads lol.
 
oshia86 said:
You see a ton of this crap. Can you actually prove that? Show us where some idiot was completely unable to think for themselves and was totally and completely blinded.Go on. Do it. Then show us that this is only specific to Apple.

People also get real pissy when they find out their company of choice does the same thing. Shame.
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He never said any of the things you are asking him to prove.
 
Bwah hahahahahahaha

I know this won't affect the current Apple vs. Samsung trial, because the trials were started before these patent changes, but, there is a great chance the trials verdict can be thrown out over this.

If not, in the appeal, the new laws -WILL- have to apply for it, as all of Apple's overturned patents in the appeal.
 
Steve said:
Here's what I find odd.....


The USPTO is the one HANDING OUT ALL THESE RETARDED PATENTS TO APPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE (patent on a rectangle / patent on turning pages).

....now they are invalidating the same patents they gave them.
Click to expand...

Its called changing of the guard. And its about f'ing time. Apple has been the terror of the tech industry far too long.
 
pothb said:
^Almost true... but Jobs.... did a good job of persuading people.... which did not carry over to the rest of the company.

Apparently the rest of them never took a basic speech class, that or they don't know how to use what they learned.
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Yep, he, like Thomas Edison, were master bullshit artists.
The rest of their techno-hipster followers have yet to learn the ways of persuasion.
 
Apple likes to think they invented quite a bit, and with Steve Jobs around, people were actually starting to believe it.
Now that he's gone, the iron curtain is finally falling and people are starting to realize different.
 
arentol said:
He never said any of the things you are asking him to prove.
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I never stated that he said anything. I only asked him to prove a few things. I thought the point I was trying to make was rather easy to see. :confused:
 
Since this is a patent that Samsung was found to infringe on in the case that cost them over a $ billion, will this lead to an appeal and a reversal of that judgment? Technically, if the patent is invalid now, it has been all along so any infringement should be no infringement.
 
So the patent office is realizing they've been asleep at the wheel. Samsung gets fined in part by this patent. Now they're revoking it? That's nice of them to take notice. Grounds for an appeal, I'd hope.
 
madmat said:
Since this is a patent that Samsung was found to infringe on in the case that cost them over a $ billion, will this lead to an appeal and a reversal of that judgment? Technically, if the patent is invalid now, it has been all along so any infringement should be no infringement.
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That's my thought. But of course, Apple probably already patented the appeal process. So they'll probably just get sued again.

I kinda think someone at the USPTO was probably reading the news of the Samsung trial and realized how absurd some of their patents where.

That, or they tried to shake Apple down for more hush money (.. afterall, they just got a $1bil judgement) and got told no.
 
Term-X said:
I'll be honest. I sort of kinda of hate Apple. I hate the way they do business, mostly and their "fans" can be stupid annoying -- though I guess that could go all ways. Having said that, I hope Apple gets their shit together and starts innovating instead of pinning their hopes on patents and lawsuits. I mean, they will always float because of the proverbial sheep but if they fail to innovate, prices of other smartphones will go up and that's bad for me.

Competition.
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Not really, did windows PC prices go up when MS had a monopoly? Now they didnt in fact the very opposite. Apple in no way ever has forced down the price of anything rather the exact opposite has happened since they charge a premium many of our great brands have tried to copy the model and raise their prices. This is the same effect caused by toyota in the car market, everyone started saying less choice and higher prices is better.

Players like MS and and google with multiple hardware producers bring prices down perfectly fine on their own terms because the OEMs are always competing based on price.
 
Steve said:
Here's what I find odd.....


The USPTO is the one HANDING OUT ALL THESE RETARDED PATENTS TO APPLE IN THE FIRST PLACE (patent on a rectangle / patent on turning pages).

....now they are invalidating the same patents they gave them.


The patent system is seriously, seriously broken. :(
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Let's focus on the good here. Some lights were turned on in the USPTO and some folks in the right places woke up. Or, there's some initiative in play to get a handle on all of this foolishness. Either way, yay!

evanisthecoastie said:
I suspect with the amount they have backed up waiting to be approved, they just started approving most without checking validity of them.
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Another possibility.

They have to fix the general perception of the system. It's no good if it becomes abused and nothing is done about it. Although, I would rather have seen this occur while Jobs was still at the helm -- bigger payoff as far as headlines go. :D
 
rudy said:
Not really, did windows PC prices go up when MS had a monopoly? Now they didnt in fact the very opposite. Apple in no way ever has forced down the price of anything rather the exact opposite has happened since they charge a premium many of our great brands have tried to copy the model and raise their prices. This is the same effect caused by toyota in the car market, everyone started saying less choice and higher prices is better.

Players like MS and and google with multiple hardware producers bring prices down perfectly fine on their own terms because the OEMs are always competing based on price.
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This. In almost every market Apple succeeds in, I'd prefer they fail completely and any other tech company(ies) on Earth fill the void. For example, now that Android has legit competition from MS in both the phone and tablet space iOS can die a fiery death immediately, as far as I'm concerned.

My reasoning is:

1. I'd much rather "the competition" to products I currently use be products that I could actually consider buying next time around, in my wildest dreams.

2. The "features" Apple brings to the competitive table, and the general direction in which they push the market, are rarely what I want or care about.

3. Real competition comes from companies who have to compete on features and price, not coast on their status-symbol pedigree.
 
oshia86 said:
I never stated that he said anything. I only asked him to prove a few things. I thought the point I was trying to make was rather easy to see. :confused:
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You're asking me to prove some things that have nothing to do with what I actually said because you're butthurt from what I said.
 
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