Tim Cook: Apple Will Aggressively Protect iPhone Intellectual Property

[rjohnstone]

ah, hyphen: Multi-Touch™, source: http://www.apple.com/legal/trademark/appletmlist.html

Apple was not granted the trademark.
The USPTO denied the registration in the final office action on Feb 8, 2009.

Trademark Act Section 2(e)(1) – Merely Descriptive Refusal

The refusal to register because the applied-for mark merely describes a feature of applicant’s goods is made final. Trademark Act Section 2(e)(1), 15 U.S.C. §1052(e)(1); see TMEP §§1209.01(b), 1209.03 et seq.

Apple has 6 months to appeal the ruling, but very few win on appeal with this type of refusal.
And lets face it... multi touch or multi-touch as Apple likes to call it, is truly descriptive. It is a feature on the iPhone, not a physical "product".