The way in which the US patents office confirms a trademark or patent is being questioned today after Apple was awarded a multitouch user interface patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office. This is the same organisation that granted a trademark for the words TV Guide when thousands of media organisations were already using the two words.
The issuing of the patent, which could have an impact on several tablet and Smartphone manufacturers, has sparked debate among Apple analysts who claim that Apple could soon demand patent payments for pinch or zoom technology currently used in Android tablets and Smartphones, or alternatively they could stop manufacturers using two finger pinch or zoom on tablets.
The patent, which was first filed in 2007, outlines how fingers can be used to navigate using a tablet. The patent was lodged after Apple acquired Swedish company Two Fingers.
The patent doesn’t go into much detail on the GUIs on the device that hosts the screen elements, nor does it expand its description to explain other forms of multitouch functionality.
According to several observers the patent is overly broad and a possible threat to other Smartphone makers that make use of multitouch.
Other observers claim that the patent gives Apple “ownership of the capacitive multitouch interface that the company pioneered with its iPhone, which analysts accept was quickly copied by other phone manufacturers such as Nokia, Research In Motion, Samsung, Motorola and several Android phone makers.
Several observers believe that the issuing of the patent is likely to produce a new round of lawsuits over the multitouch interfaces if any of the phone companies that are currently using multitouch technology decided to challenge the Apple patent.
VP of law policy at the Computer and Communications Industry Association, Matt Schruers, suggested that several companies may begin trying to strike deals with Apple. He said “Patents like this create uncertainty, which generally leads to negotiations. Patent lawyers for Apple show up with a big stack of accordion files, Google’s lawyers come with their stack and back-room patent cross-licensing begins.”
Nilay Patel, intellectual property lawyer and former Engadget editor (now at This is my Next), told Ars that the patent’s claims are “fairly narrow.”
Patel notes that they require single-finger scrolling along with reprinted scrolling within a frame on a website (think an embedded Google Map, like our example above). “Also, it only applies to Web browsers on mobile devices, not multitouch in general,” Patel said.
