In a setback to Apple, the US Patent and Trademark office (USPTO) has rejected the company's claims on the 'pinch to zoom' gesture. The claim is also part of the lawsuit filed by the Cupertino giant against Samsung Electronics in the court and this could now affect the amount of damages that Samsung has to pay to Apple, as the latter has already appealed for a retrial.
According to a
report by PC World, 21 claims of a patent including "pinch to zoom" filed by Apple, were rejected by the USPTO in a "final office action," as the patent office felt that these were unpatentable or already anticipated by previous patents.
As per a patent office document, claim 8 relates to "determining whether the event object invokes a scroll or gesture operation by distinguishing between a single input point applied to the touch-sensitive display that is interpreted as the scroll operation and two or more input points applied to the touch-sensitive display that are interpreted as the gesture operation."
The USPTO ruled that claim 8 related to "pinch to zoom" was anticipated in US Patent No. 7,724,242 awarded to Daniel W. Hillis and Bran Ferren. "Hillis teaches distinguishing the number of contact points and determining whether the event object matches a gesture pattern," ruled the USPTO.
Apple can respond to the decision within two months, and just like the previous instances, can go to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board for a judicial review.
The "pinch to zoom" patent covers a two finger gesture on a touch screen that was first introduced by Apple with the iPhone. It lets users pinch with two fingers to zoom in and out while browsing a webpage, image or a document. Pinching in zooms in while pinching out zooms out.
As we mentioned, the "pinch to zoom" gesture is part of claim 8 of Apple's patent (7,844,915('915 patent)) which was also included in Apple's lawsuit against Samsung in the court.
In August 2012, a jury had awarded Apple US$1.05 billion in damages as it found that 21 out of 24 Samsung smartphones and tablets infringed claim 8 of Apple's patent.
However, Samsung filed an appeal in US District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division and the court has now ordered a partial retrial.