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19 August 2015Patents

USPTO invalidates Apple patent that Samsung had infringed

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has dealt a potential blow to Apple after invalidating a design patent at the centre of its battle with Samsung.

In a decision handed down by the Central Reexamination Unit, the USPTO issued a non-final rejection against Apple’s patent.

The patent, US number D618,677, covers the appearance of the surface of a smart phone device. The USPTO’s review found that the blueprints in the application were covered by prior art and therefore are not eligible for patent protection.

The patent was one of three that Samsung was found to have infringed in 2012.

In its decision on August 5, the USPTO said: “The design in this patent is not described in the originally filed disclosure of earlier applications. The design in this patent is different from that of the earlier applications.”

Therefore, the office said, certain prior art was now eligible to invalidate the patent and that it should be rejected for obviousness.

The prior art referenced included electronics company LG’s US design patent number D546,313, a patent application by Sharp, and a Japanese design patent application.

Other patents, including another Japanese design patent and a Samsung design patent, US number D546,313, were also cited. Other examples of prior art that contributed to the decision included two of Apple’s own design patents.

Since 2012 Apple’s battle with Samsung has seen twists and turns until as recently as this week.

On Monday, WIPR reported that Samsung was rebuffed in its attempt to overturn a $548 million ruling after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit refused to hear the case en banc.

Two of the three patents at the centre of the dispute cover the outer shape of a smart phone with curved corners and straight sides, and the third covers the “graphical user interface” of the iPhone.

In 2012, the US District Court for the Northern District of California ruled that Samsung had infringed the three patents.

That decision formed part of a wider ruling against Samsung in which the Korea-based company was fined $930 million for patent infringement and trade dress dilution.

But in May 2015, after Samsung appealed against the decision, the federal circuit’s three-judge panel vacated $382 million from the ruling that was related to trade dress dilution and asked the district court to review it again.

The federal circuit upheld the damages award centring on the three design patents, meaning Samsung’s total fine stood at $548 million, and rejected Samsung’s request for an en banc hearing on August 13.

Apple is entitled to appeal against the USPTO’s ruling.

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17 August 2015   Samsung has been rebuffed in its attempt to overturn a $548 million infringement ruling after the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit refused to hear the case en banc.