Mikey Campbell
The USPTO on Tuesday rejected multiple claims of Apple's '172 patent for autocompletion of text input, which the company successfully asserted in its second California court action against Samsung.
In a court filing on Thursday, Samsung informed District Court Judge Lucy Koh of the recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office decision to reject claims of Apple's U.S. Patent No. 8,074,172 for predictive text input, which was asserted against the Korean tech giant in the two companies' most recent California dispute.
Specifically, the USPTO Office Action, brought about by an ex parte reexamination request, concluded that two patents anticipated Claim 18 of Apple's '172 property, prompting the body to reject it citing prior art. The decision could deal a blow to Apple's $119.6 million win as Judge Koh found Samsung to have infringed on the autocomplete patent in a summary judgment handed down before the trial began.
As noted by FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller, who spotted Samsung's filing earlier today, noted an infringement ruling on an invalid patent is meaningless and could decrease damages owed to Apple. In addition, Judge Koh may agree with an outstanding post-trial motion from Samsung that seeks to hold Claim 18 invalid.
The Office Action is not final and Apple still has a number of appeal routes to explore before the patent is officially deemed invalid. The USPTO previously invalidated Apple patents for iOS "pinch-to-zoom" and "rubber-banding" assets.
While Apple and Samsung continue to wage patent war in the U.S., both companies recently agreed to settle all international litigation.
Charles Martin
Malcolm Owen
Andrew O'Hara
William Gallagher
53 Comments
So... successfully asserted already. Meaning they’re valid.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/181744/uspto-rejects-claims-of-apple-patent-asserted-against-samsung-in-california-trial#post_2575924"]So... successfully asserted already. Meaning they’re valid. [/quote] Still doesn't look good that these patents are being invalidated by the patent office.
[quote name="Rogifan" url="/t/181744/uspto-rejects-claims-of-apple-patent-asserted-against-samsung-in-california-trial#post_2575930"] Still doesn't look good that these patents are being invalidated by the patent office.[/quote] They likely got invalidated due to an "anonymous" claim being filed to have them thrown out. Wouldn't surprise me a single bit if the anonymous party was someone with ties to Scamsung. Apple will just appeal and have the decision reversed and the patent will stand, just watch. The USPTO usually attempts to dismiss patents as soon as an anonymous claim is filed, forcing the patent holder to begin, in some cases multiple, appeals. Just goes to show how broken the patent system is.
[quote name="MagMan1979" url="/t/181744/uspto-rejects-claims-of-apple-patent-asserted-against-samsung-in-california-trial#post_2575932"] They likely got invalidated due to an "anonymous" claim being filed to have them thrown out. Wouldn't surprise me a single bit if the anonymous party was someone with ties to Scamsung. Apple will just appeal and have the decision reversed and the patent will stand, just watch. The USPTO usually attempts to dismiss patents as soon as an anonymous claim is filed, forcing the patent holder to begin, in some cases multiple, appeals. Just goes to show how broken the patent system is.[/quote] Best thing would probably be to do away with software patents all together.
[quote name="Tallest Skil" url="/t/181744/uspto-rejects-claims-of-apple-patent-asserted-against-samsung-in-california-trial/0_100#post_2575924"]So... successfully asserted already. Meaning they’re valid. [/quote]Uhm no.