USPTO Preliminarily Rejects Apple's 'Pinch-to-Zoom' Patent

[teejaysyke]

Originally Posted by brdeveloper

Taking ownership of pinch-to-zoom or singing Happy Birthday publically is as ridiculous as patenting sit-to-poop.

Don't give apple anymore ideas for patents.

[Moshe1010]

Let's hope Apple would lose on any other lawsuit they file. I just start to hate this company even though I love their products.

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by mentholiptus

What companies shipped consumer products that included pinch to zoom as a feature? Please, list links to these products, companies, and patents.

Thx.

Here, go to 33:40, and note the reaction of the viewers.:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72uTrA5EDY

Trained seals.

[iphoneclassic]

Originally Posted by 4God

Sounds like someone's getting paid off...

When a company proves itself as patent troll, USPTO tend to pay close attention to its patent applications.

[Lancer]

I just want to know if this will affect the end user, or would it mean Apple (and others) paying to use the technologies?

[ChrisTX]

"Pinch to zoom" is commonplace in all competing smartphones that people often forget that without Apple the technology would never have become mainstream. With that being said it should be licensed out as a FRAND patent. It just seems like such common sense now, not one company should hold the key to it.

[SomeDudeAsking]

Originally Posted by ChrisTX

"Pinch to zoom" is commonplace in all competing smartphones that people often forget that without Apple the technology would never have become mainstream. With that being said it should be licensed out as a FRAND patent. It just seems like such common sense now, not one company should hold the key to it.

Apple didn't invent pinch to zoom. See all the posts above. Apple is basically stealing credit for the work other companies did.

[haruhiko]

Yeah, I'm sure that it was Samsung who invented the idea of modern post-2007 smartphone... Apple copied Samsung, it must be. /s

[blackhand1001]

Originally Posted by mentholiptus

There are hundreds of other ways to zoom in and out, but pinch to zoom is by far the best/coolest/most natural, and everyone else wants it. Apple nailed it, and no one else wants to settle for less.

When Apple showed it for the first time, people ooh'd, ahh'd, clapped, whistled, and cheered, because it was THAT good. It had a huge impact, and it took years before anyone else had an OS that could hold a candle to iOS.

Now, everyone who copied the original, and was late to the party, wants what Apple has. But they don't want to work for it. They just want it. They feel entitled to it. They could use sliders UI's, knob UI's, they could swipe, use a magnifying glass like Adobe, etc, but no, it has to be Apple's method, because it's established (by the iPhone) as the best.

Lame. People say they want competition, then bitch because they've got nothing to bring to the table. They want to compete by making iPhones, rebranding them, and then pitting them against the iPhone. There's no argument that justifies anything else. It's all BS.

Go to 33:40, and see it for the first time on any consumer device, ever:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s72uTrA5EDY

Microsoft surface was demod more than a year before this with full pinch to zoom functionality.

[teejaysyke]

Originally Posted by haruhiko

Yeah, I'm sure that it was Samsung who invented the idea of modern post-2007 smartphone... Apple copied Samsung, it must be. /s

Just because Apple brought smartphones to market, doesn't mean touch screens with pinch to zoom weren't around before....

[swy05]

Originally Posted by haruhiko

Yeah, I'm sure that it was Samsung who invented the idea of modern post-2007 smartphone... Apple copied Samsung, it must be. /s

What does Apples bold claims of creating pinch to zoom have to do with Samsung?

I know you hate Samsung with a passion (im sorry it sounds like Samsung raped your family and burned your house down) but your anger is well....hahaha.

We could be talking about how beautiful the weather is and youll be talking about how much you hate Samsung.

I never understood the people on this board who vehemently hate a company. Its so laughable.

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by swy05

What does Apples bold claims of creating pinch to zoom have to do with Samsung?

I know you hate Samsung with a passion (im sorry it sounds like Samsung raped your family and burned your house down) but your anger is well....hahaha.

We could be talking about how beautiful the weather is and youll be talking about how much you hate Samsung.

I never understood the people on this board who vehemently hate a company. Its so laughable.

Completely agree with you. Some people have been trained well to hate Samsung. I don't think they even understand why they hate Samsung.

[macsmurf]

A reenactment of the Samsung vs Apple trial ca. 1990

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM5_dgKDsrc

The kids in the hall obviously have a good case against both companies here. Or maybe not

[canucksfan88]

good. there is no way pinch to zoom should be patentable

[Konrad]

I practiced pinch to zoom on my women way before Apple existed. And I shared it with everyone.

[hakime]

It's very important to understand here that no Apple's patent has ever been invalidated so far. The USPTO has just issued a tentative of invalidation which actually rarely succeeds totally (i.e., all patent claims being invalidated) or at all as Apple has all right to respond to that. Right now these are ex parte reexaminations triggered by a request which were filed anonymously. And by anonymously we all know that at least one of those anonymous parties is Google. On top of that, in the case at hand (pinch to zoom patent), some of the rejections are based on rather doubtful theories.

So if we look at all of this, we've got Apple to successfully patent ideas that have changed the mobile industry and allowed competitors like Samsung and Google to ride on these successful innovations and ideas (that none of them have never implemented before) to considerably enrich themselves. And "successful" is key here as no one care of unsuccessful patents whether they are valid or not.

Now that Apple has decided to protect its investments, "anonymous" companies have decided to lobby the USPTO against Apple's patents so that they can continue to use innovations that they did not first deploy to real products.

[JoeG4]

Fingerworks existed (and made really weird looking multitouch surface keyboards) for quite a while before Apple bought them. However, prior to capacitive touchscreens it wouldn't have been easy to make a multitouch SCREEN because that technology hit the market RIGHT before the iPhone came out....

Which is probably why it came out when it did.

Because apple pioneered using multitouch screens, lots of people think that Apple invented the tech.. I don't think they did. They did however, buy out a company that used quite a bit of it.

I'm pretty sure there are movies where expanding views by dragging a corner to see more existed long before the iphone did.

I'm also pretty sure that there were many programs before the iphone, where if you stretched the program window, the content inside 'zoomed'/grew in size to fit the size of the window, MANY GAMES DID THAT.

Therefore it does seem kinda unsurprising that dragging similarly on a screen would zoom in and out to me.

[Renzatic]

Originally Posted by hakime

Now that Apple has decided to protect its investments, "anonymous" companies have decided to lobby the USPTO against Apple's patents so that they can continue to use innovations that they did not first deploy to real products.

I doubt it was just Google alone. I'd say the Illuminati had something to do with it. Probably while in cahoots with those wily Freemasons out scheming like they always do below Denver International Airport.

Also FEMA. They can suspend the constitution, you know. That's what they plan on doing once they've stolen enough innovations.

[Bubba Satori]

Apple should just buy the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

[Stridder44]

Originally Posted by SomeDudeAsking

These threads will stop when Apple stops bully suing with invalid, frivolous patents.

When did this become such an Android fanboy forum?

[G51989]

Originally Posted by Bubba Satori

Apple should just buy the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Your joking right?

[erzhik]

So, one question remains.. Who the hell approved these patents in the first place? Someone who was paid by Apple? Someone who is a die hard apple fan?

[Analog Kid]

Ok, first: read a patent before screaming about how wrong it is. "Pinch-to-zoom" isn't even claimed in this patent, so we can stop all the back and forth over who pinched first.

Fundamentally this is about distinguishing between scrolling and multi-touch gestures. What's claimed doesn't strike me as mind blowing, but let's at least argue about the right stuff...


That said, our patent system is horribly broken. The Patent Office no longer has the capacity to really review anything. They use the same strategy health insurance uses-- reject everything, and if the customer pushes back maybe they have something.

The fact that we have a system where patents can be issued as valid, businesses can be built on them, and then the PTO can read it a second time and say "huh, now that we think about it this is crap" is just embarrassing...

[dalbir4444]

Originally Posted by Stridder44

When did this become such an Android fanboy forum?

I have literally seen you post this exact statement over five times. I'd like to ask you a question. Where in his post did he mention Android?

[xanagu]

epic roflmao

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Originally Posted by Stridder44

When did this become such an Android fanboy forum?

Since 75% of smartphones over the world use Android, there is no such thing as a free-android place