PTO Tentatively Tosses Apple’s Rubber-Band Patent

The US Patent and Trademark Office has tentatively decided that all 20 claims in Apple’s US Patent No, 7,469,381 are invalid. The non-binding decision had Samsung sprinting off to Judge Lucy Koh late Monday to inform her of the re-examination finding. See, Apple used Claim 19 of the so-called rubber-band patent to nail Samsung’s hide to the barn door this summer, one of five patents that made a California jury award Apple landmark damages of $1.05 billion against Samsung for infringing it in various products including the Galaxy Tab and Galaxy S2 smartphone. Fortune recalls that it was supposed to have been one of Steve Jobs’ favorite patents, the widgetry that convinced him that Apple could make a meaningful dent in the cell phone market, and something he distinctly told Samsung not to copy although it did anyway.

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