
At the end of last year, the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in response to a challenge preliminarily invalidated the so-called “Steve Jobs patent,” which is a massive 364-page patent with 293 pages of drawings dating back to September 2006 and covering many details of the original iPhone. Jobs is listed as the first of over two dozen inventors on the patent and it is considered perhaps the most famous of his over 300 credits patents.
As noted by Florian Mueller of FOSS Patents, the USPTO has completed its reexamination of the patent and ruled that all twenty claims have been confirmed as patentable. This significantly strengthens a patent that has been used against several of Apple’s competitors in court. The following was mentioned regarding the matter:
As we speak, the Steve Jobs patent is even stronger than it was before someone (presumably Samsung and Google) challenged it anonymously. On September 4, 2013, the USPTO issued a reexamination certificate confirming the patentability of all 20 claims because the prior art neither anticipated this invention nor renders it obvious.
The news overall is a big win in Apple’s favor.
Source: FOSS Patents
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