Apple Wins Touchscreen Patent For Smartphones

Smartphone makers will not be pleased to learn that Apple has finally succeed in winning a major patent, for the use of capacitive touchscreens in smartphones.

Some believe the patent award could have a dramatic effect on the entire smartphone market.

Capacitive touchscreens are the glass screens that form the main interface of most modern day smartphones. Users will be familiar with using their fingers as conductors, in order to perform some sort of action on their handset.

Long Time Coming

Apple filed for the patent three years ago regarding the capacitive touchscreen it introduced on its original iPhone way back in 2007. Now after three years of deliberation the patent has been awarded.

“A computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display, [that] comprises displaying a portion of page content, including a frame displaying a portion of frame content and also including other content of the page, on the touch screen display,” reads the patent abstract.

The wording of the patent is important in two ways.

Firstly it can be interpreted to cover any device that uses a multitouch interface. This of course includes smartphones but could also include tablets as well. Apple could therefore potentially force competitors to licence their patent.

Or the patent wording could be interpreted as dealing with Apple’s own technology, and nobody else. However this does place the onus on rival manufacturers to prove their device is not mimicking Apple.

“This patent covers a kind of functionality without which it will be hard to build a competitive smartphone,” patent commenter and IP law blogger Florian Mueller told PC Mag.

“Unless this patent becomes invalidated, it would allow Apple to stifle innovation and bully competitors,” he added.

No Panic Yet

However rival smartphone makers should not hit the panic button (or screen) yet as Mueller did say the American courts are unlikely to side with Apple, provided rivals can show that their devices do not mimic the Apple user interface entirely, including the traditional finger swipe or the pinch-to-zoom movements used on the iPhone’s touchscreen.

“The way to read a patent claim is that it’s only infringed if the accused technology is implemented in its entirety – all of the characteristics must be matched,” he said. “In this case, large parts of the independent claims 1 and 2 describe a smartphone, but there are also specific references to the ‘translation’ (in terms of relocation) of touchscreen contents with a touch gesture. Only a smartphone providing that functionality could be accused of infringement.”

And further hope was provided by tech commentator Nilay Patel of This Is My Next. He contends that the claims of the patent are far narrower than were previously thought.

He states that the patent refers to a specific kind of multitouch behaviour with respect to web page content and frames within the web page. Patel says that this is only one kind o touchscreen interaction, and the boffins at giants such as Google and Microsoft should be able to engineer around it.

Patent Lawsuits

However there is little doubt that this patent is an important victory for Apple, which is currently locked in a number of patent infringement lawsuits against HTC and Motorola.

Apple also recently settled a high-profile dispute against Nokia. Under the terms of that agreement, Apple will pay Nokia a one-time fee in addition to royalties.

Apple is also battling against Samsung after accusing the South Korean electronics giant of ‘slavishly copying’ Apple’s designs and violating its intellectual property rights.

Earlier this month it expanded its lawsuit to the new Galaxy Tab 10.1 tablet.

Meanwhile Samsung’s counter attack recently suffered a setback when it was denied an advance look at the next iPad  and iPhone.