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Samsung Tells the Court: USPTO Final Office Action Finds All 21 Claims of Apple's '915 Patent Invalid ~pj Updated

By Pamela Jones et al.

Samsung has just notified [PDF] the US District Court in Northern California that, according to another USPTO Final Office Action, Apple's '915 patent has been found invalid on reexamination. All 21 claims of the '915 patent bit the dust, as you can see in Exhibit A [PDF], the USPTO documents The issue is prior art and obviousness. So, the jury in Apple v. Samsung got another thing wrong, I see. Apple didn't invent gestures.

Here's what Samsung tells the court:

This Final Office Action by the USPTO is relevant because it rejects all claims of the '915 patent as being anticipated or obvious in view of U.S. Patent No. 7,724,242 to Hillis ("Hillis,"), Japanese Publ No. 2000-163031A to Nomura ("Nomura,"), and other prior art references. This final rejection includes claim 8, which is the only claim of the '915 patent at issue in this action. The jury found at trial that 21 of 24 accused Samsung products infringed claim 8 of the '915 Patent-specifically the Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S (i9000), Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II (AT&T), Galaxy S II (i9100), Galaxy S II (T-Mobile), Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 10.1 (WiFi), Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Mesmerize, Nexus S 4G, Transform, and Vibrant. The jury awarded damages as to all products found to infringe the '915 patent except the Galaxy S (i9000) and Galaxy S II (i9100). The new trial on damages scheduled to begin November 12, 2013 includes 12 products that the jury held to infringe claim 8 of the '915 Patent-specifically the Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy Tab, Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Nexus S 4G, and Transform. (See Dkt. No. 2271 at 26; Dkt. No. 2316 at 2.)

Apple's fancy lawyers can contact the USPTO now and argue against this final office action by telling them the patent doesn't mean what they said it means at trial or whatever Apple tries next. But one thing is for sure: the judge was right to rule that Samsung wasn't intending to infringe. It genuinely, and now appropriately, believed Apple was bullying Samsung with some questionable patents. That's the best you can say for them now. Unfortunately, Samsung ran into a jury that didn't know how where up is and seemed to worship the ground Apple walked on. So they decided to "send a message", they said, and punish Samsung. For infringing some apparently invalid patents, as it now turns out. Actually, we at Groklaw told you these patents were ridiculous at the time, that patents on algorithms should not be allowed as patentable subject matter in the first place. That is the central problem in US patent law.

Full post as published by Groklaw on July 28, 2013 (boomark / email).