Apple’s Key Rubber-Band Patent Found Invalid Again

Samsung rushed in to tell District Court Judge Lucy Koh the other day that the US Patent and Trademark Office had found a major claim in Apple’s so-called Rubber-banding patent invalid (US Patent No. 7,469,381). The PTO said it wasn’t novel based on prior art. The decision is a so-called Final Office Action, which – in the bureaucratic scheme of things – isn’t really final until Apple exhausts all appeals available, a process likely to take years. Last August a jury found the patent valid and infringed by Samsung. Then a PTO re-examination found it invalid in what they call a First Office Action. The PTO has found three claims in the patent valid and tossed out 17 other claims including the one important in Apple’s infringement case against Samsung, claim 19.

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