Apple DOES NOT own multi-touch. Legal impossibility.

[Stanovoy]

With all the talks about how Apple owns multi-touch, I decided to look into the matter and clarify the situation once and for all.

Apple does not and cannot possible own multi-touch.

Multi-touch was patented on August 22, 2000 by Michael Ure and Menlo Park of Culpertino, CA. The application was filed in 1996, and a PCT was filed soon after. The patent number is 6,107,997 and can be retrieved here: http://www.google.com/patents?id=dB4...bstract&zoom=4

Although they are from the same town as Apple, the patent was never assigned to Apple. In fact, it was never assigned to anyone. I found this intriguing, so I dug deeper. It turned out that the inventors failed to pay the necessary maintenance fee, and the patent EXPIRED in 2004.

So there you have it, two-fingered multi-touch is now public information and no one can own it anymore. That also explains why Apple's patents are all on 4 or more fingered configurations and extremely narrow.

[FSUftbllfan]

With all the talks about how Apple owns multi-touch, I decided to look into the matter and clarify the situation once and for all.

Apple does not and cannot possible own multi-touch.

Multi-touch was patented on August 22, 2000 by Michael Ure and Menlo Park of Culpertino, CA. The application was filed in 1996, and a PCT was filed soon after. The patent number is 6,107,997 and can be retrieved here: http://www.google.com/patents?id=dB4...bstract&zoom=4

Although they are from the same town as Apple, the patent was never assigned to Apple. In fact, it was never assigned to anyone. I found this intriguing, so I dug deeper. It turned out that the inventors failed to pay the necessary maintenance fee, and the patent EXPIRED in 2004.

So there you have it, two-fingered multi-touch is now public information and no one can own it anymore. That also explains why Apple's patents are all on 4 or more fingered configurations and extremely narrow.

Good work, wonder why we don't see multi touch yet then?

[Stanovoy]

Well, the other side of the equation is possible IPs on the hardware itself. I will looking into the patent ownership over the hardware tomorrow and see if Synaptic owns it. If it does, it can potentially have an exclusive licensing contract with Apple for the use of the multi-sensing API. I don't know why they would want to do that, but we'll see tomorrow.

[twofivethreetwo]

They may not own patents to multi-touch but i've read in several places that they did file patents for multi-touch on laptops/trackpads. So, maybe this is where people just assume they have patents on all multi-touch devices?

[Stanovoy]

They have two issued patents on multi-touch involving 4 and 7 fingers all at the same time. They have a number of applications on various aspects of multi-touch, but only on the software interpretation side. All the applications are extremely narrow. You would have to try pretty hard to infringe any of them. Keep in mind that newer patents cannot be broader than older patents in the same area of technology. So by the time these applications get issued, if ever, the resulting patents will be much narrower than what's out there now.

[DreamcastDC]

Maybe Google hasn't implement the API into the Android OS yet, cause you can see that the OS is still work in progress, even the onscreen keyboard won't happen until Q1 2009.

[sisconda]

From my understanding, while Apple doesn't own multi-touch it has filed patents for specific multi-touch gestures, i.e. the two fingered pinch. If Apple owns a specific gesture, it would make it difficult to implement any sort of multi-touch, as you'd have to make sure users can't "pinch" or whatever else has been patented on the Android OS.

Helpfule wired article discussing Apple's pinch patents: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscell...itouch_patents

[Stanovoy]

Maybe Google hasn't implement the API into the Android OS yet, cause you can see that the OS is still work in progress, even the onscreen keyboard won't happen until Q1 2009.

I certainly hope so. I really want to see multi-touch on the G1. Let's just hope there aren't other legal barriers to that.

[poky]

Maybe Google hasn't implement the API into the Android OS yet, cause you can see that the OS is still work in progress, even the onscreen keyboard won't happen until Q1 2009.

I'd guess this is the answer as well. I think Google simply ran out of time working features into Android and knew they needed to jump into this market sooner rather than later if they wanted any chance at keeping the iPhone from becoming the iPod of the phone world (near monopoly status). This follows Google's MO anyway, release early/simple/stable (and in beta) and improve over time.

Anyway, thanks for investigating this. Great information. Also explains why Microsoft is using multi-touch in their surface applications. I always thought it was highly unlikely they were paying Apple licensing fees.

[Stanovoy]

From my understanding, while Apple doesn't own multi-touch it has filed patents for specific multi-touch gestures, i.e. the two fingered pinch. If Apple owns a specific gesture, it would make it difficult to implement any sort of multi-touch, as you'd have to make sure users can't "pinch" or whatever else has been patented on the Android OS.

Helpfule wired article discussing Apple's pinch patents: http://www.wired.com/gadgets/miscell...itouch_patents

Apple is unlikely to be able to patent the pinch gesture. The original patent that I started this thread with already covered over 36 gestures, one of which is the pinch. Even if the PTO issues a pinch patent to Apple, that patent will not be valid and enforceable.

It usually takes 3 to 5 years for an application to go from filed to issued. During this time, a lot of things would change. Rarely do an application ever get issued as filed.

If you look at all the applications filed by Apple on point, they are very narrow and can be easily circumvented. Companies apply for patents to protect their ideas OR to gain leverage for bargaining. I believe Apple is trying to do the latter in this instance.