   The United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which
often seems content to grant patents willy-nilly and let
companies fight out their validity in court, has just ruled that
Apple's massive multi-touch patent is invalid. At least for now.
They approved it before and may approve it again. But they're
invalidating their previous validation unless and until they
validate it again. Yeah, it gives me a headache as well. Here's
what Florian Mueller of Foss Patents has to say:   The mega-
multitouch patent is something called the Steve Jobs patent, and
Apple has asserted it in litigation before. How and if this
affects current and future litigation remains to be seen. All
that happened, it seems, is that the patent was challenged and
now Apple gets to respond.  The Verge's Nilay Patel reacted on
Twitter with the following:  A first office action invalidating
a patent means kind of less than nothing.  Source: Foss Patents,
@reckless  Rene Ritchie   More Posts    ← Previously   Next up →
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