Apple granted patent on capacitive multitouch displays
By Nilay Patel 
posted February 17th 2010 11:51AM
posted February 17th 2010 11:51AM
posted February 17th 2010 11:51AM
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Wow, filed in 2004... might hold some weight here, especially combined with Apple's other multitouch patents. This could be a nice licensing stream for Apple if they play to FRAND licensing as they normally do.
More likely however, Apple will simply "open" license it to anyone who cross licenses potentially infringing patents, or hold it back and slap it on the table when other questionable patents are thrown at them.
It;s not exactly rocket science to think up this technology, so i doubt this patent will survive a direct challenge, but it;s a nice bargaining tool, as most other Apple patents are.
@zelannii This is complete crap.
Looks like Samsung will be getting a ton of sales for their new OLED capacitive screen then. It's better anyway, so who cares, but the fact that our patent office allows things like this to fly is getting ridiculous.
@Gigaflop
It's a legitimate idea, so I have no problem with it being patented. The ability to temporarily monopolize an innovation makes innovation worth the effort... that's the entire point.
The problem is the length of time... this should expire in more like 5 years, not 20. (Of course, is that 5 years from filing, or 5 from granting? The former would have already expired... maybe that's a good thing...)
I would actually be more in favor of having a correlation between the length of time of the patent, and the size of the organization it was granted to.
(With obvious limitations/conditions on licensing the patent... else an employee of a big company could be granted a patent, and just sell it or "license" it to their company for free...)
@zelannii apparently, they thought it would be handy to be able to pinch and zoom while opening two apps at the same time
Simple, don't use glass......It cracks anyway.
@kjb434
Erm, it's toughened glass.
It actually works really well. I've dropped my iPhone absolutely loads and the screen's barely got a scratch. This is the 8GB 1st Gen iPhone that I've had since May of '08.
@kjb434 Dude plastic isn't better, plus they use tempered glass which is really sturdy.
@Valicore What I'm waiting for is a phone with a display made of ill-tempered glass.
Angry smartphone is angry.
@thewelshboyo
IMO the iPhones screen is the most fragile out of all devices i ever owned
@thewelshboyo you obviously havent dropped screen side flat against a solid surface i did that with my 2nd gen ipod touch and apple wants $200 just to replace the glass f*ck that i'm gonna fix it myself
@blizz419 Ive dropped my iPhone 3GS a few times on concrete, and there's absolutely no evidence of it. The screen is solid - the shell is more likely to damage!
I hate stupid patents like these,
@Terrillos Art
we should be ashamed of our patant system, not because apple can get a patant but because something so vauge and broad can be patanted
@Terrillos Art
True, but like the article says it will spurn other companies to innovate elsewhere - will still aid in progress of tech. no?
@Terrillos Art
Ditto for me
@DefPoet
how do u manage to misspell "patent" when it has been mentioned 478487 times already on this page alone?
@DefPoet
We should be ashamed of people who can't spell patent.
@Rodz
If you're going to be pedantic about someone's spelling (on a blog comments section, no less), then perhaps you should have noticed he spelled "vague" wrong, too. Then again, maybe you just shouldn't be such a pedant.
Those are some weird looking hands.
@SomEngangVar : Homer Simpson hands!
@SomEngangVar
I'd love to meet the artists for patents.
@SomEngangVar
It appears they are hurting the screen quite badly :(
@SomEngangVar
Cut them some slack. They're scientists, not artists.
@SomEngangVar
Was that left hand done by M.C. Escher?
@SomEngangVar
(patents process for drawing Apple patent diagrams)
@ChazClout Dammit, you beat me to it.
How does Apple keep Johnny Ive happy? His not-so-talented brother gets to draw the patent applications.
Wow. That's a big coup d'etat for Apple.
@Kyle P Well in the US yes it is but in the rest of the world it is not because there are many companies that have this patent also in other countries. The problem is versus innovating companies will just still ignore the US market when it comes to hardware. None of the major players will change there phones just so it can fit the US market that is why for every 100 phones announced maybe 10 may it to the states. Are patent system is to archaic and needs to get inline with the rest of the world.
This discusion about apple and its patents is getting a bit old. I you compare the amount patents apple have against any other telephone maker or compute rmaker you'll see that apple is a very small player when it comes to patents.
For source check the us patent office homepage.
Tip to all other companies:
PATENT EVERYTHING. Dare Apple to sue over this.
If they do, sue them out of business. Mutually assured destruction.
Hey it worked for the U.S. And USSR.
patent system is flawed if they can do this? how bout patenting shit? that way nobody can go to the bathroom, w/o apple having total control of it.
@haan
Apple will do it sometime in the future..be sure for it..
404 Error, teh reporting not found.
I don't mean to be a hater, and maybe I'm overreacting to the news, but can we get some real substance here? There's a pretty broad headline with a fairly open-ended conclusion with minimal commentary/analysis. I know that some articles are just run-and-gun, but this one seems like it merits some serious discussion and definitely a deeper level of analysis. An engineering perspective perhaps? Some serious legal commentary? There could be some seriously heavy implications to this patent, considering that capacitive screens will rule just about everything in the near future and all we get is a paragraph ending in "We'll see how this shakes down." Really??
Hurray for the attention span of the average ADD-inflicted reader and writers that have to cater to them.
@theNEOone Honestly, there's not too much to be said at this point -- the patent was granted, but the rest of the world doesn't grind to a halt because the USPTO issued some paperwork. What's more, this application has been pending since 2004, so it's been available for others to look at and design around.
It's really up to Apple to decide how to play this now -- we'll just have to wait.
@theNEOone What - you mean reporting instead of blogging?
@Nilay Patel
So what you're saying is that this is just business as usual? I certainly don't expect the world to grind to a halt, but am I wrong to think that this is some serious arsenal for Apple? We're not talking about a patent for a stupid pinching gesture. This seems like something that might brew some serious litigation down the road. Again, maybe I'm just out in left field on this one, but it seems to me like this deserves some more attention.
=|
@theNEOone It's like, one tiny notch above business as usual -- enough to deserve some attention, but not enough to freak out over. There's a lot of players in this market, and they're all working on different implementations of this tech. Apple getting a patent on one implementation it described six years ago probably hasn't surprised or scared anyone. Like I said, we'll have to see what they decide to do -- for now, it's probably enough to to just note that it was granted.
@Nilay Patel
I wish it were that simple. The patent passed the application process which is not always a sure thing(it is essential a trial) and we have no idea what or who or how it was contested.
However like multi-touch gestures this type of patent does not seem to be the type that would hold up in the ITC or federal court with a decent attorney since there is plenty of prior art and I would almost say that it would be considered common knowledge in the field. You can look to sources going all the way back to 1980's on this patent.
Patents do not get overturned all the time it does happen though. My guess is this is another weak patent and it will have almost no effect.
@Nilay Patel
It seems a shame that nothing can be done to stop to insidious pilferer who remains at large with the editors' REPORT/+/- buttons.
What's the 'net coming to...
How selfish >:(
A patent is never final. Many patents get cancelled because of the following trials.
@TMC
Yep, a little prior art to show that stevo copied this and it's off to the races.
@TMC - seeing this I simply remember how Apple's multitouch patent from last year ended up...lots of other companies offer multitouch capable phones and devices nowadays, and more are coming up. If that patent really stood a chance at court, Apple would have long since started to sue other companies. Since they haven't...
And I'm sure this one will be exactly the same. The broader a patent, the easier it is usually challenged.
I wonder how much Apple had to pay Fox to have Homer Simpson do the hand modeling for those drawings.
I've seen my fair share of iPhone's with cracked screens and people who just decided to live with it rather than pay to have it fixed.
This is such BS. What is the world coming to?
Broken patent system is broken!
another patent that should never been approved.
honestly, screw apple.