The U.S. patent office on Friday brought some bad news for technology giant Apple. The company has ruled that Apple's "bounce-back" patent is ultimately void or invalid. The USPTO (United States Patent and Trademark Office) has ruled that almost all bounce-back arguments are invalid. The legalization is part of a series of negative developments in Apple's recent patent and intellectual property lawsuits.
The bounce-back feature has a rubber band-like re-bouncing effect when the content displayed on the screen of an Apple product is dragged to one end. The patent played a key role in the historic billion-dollar trial of best-selling Android device maker Samsung vs. iPhone maker Apple. At the time, Apple had sued rival Samsung for more than 20 smartphones and two tablets for bounce-back utility patent infringement.
However, despite receiving a "final rejection call" from the USPTO, Apple still has a legal way to go. However, it remains to be seen how much it will benefit or whether it will have any positive consequences for Apple at all.
In this case, the company will send their response to the recent decision of the patent office. If that doesn't work (usually it doesn't work) they will have a patent trial and appeal. If the results are not in Apple's favor, a lawsuit will be filed in the U.S. Court of Appeals.
These processes are quite time consuming. But in the end, if Apple's "bounce-back" patent is invalid, the fine against Samsung could be reduced to another িয়ন 1 billion. Because the compensation was determined by reviewing these issues.
You may know that a few days ago, when Samsung appealed against that judgment, at one point, on Friday, March 1, 2013, the court reduced the pre-imposed fine by more than 40 percent. According to the latest legal proceedings, the amount of this compensation is 596 million US dollars. And the bounce-back patent issue has complicated the whole thing - though Samsung should be happy about it.f