Apple has just been granted the patent for iPhone multitouch technology in the US – say goodbye to rival multitouch phones, or at least ones that can’t prove they’re significantly different to Apple’s!
Apple has just won a patent for multitouch touchscreen technology, meaning it now owns the copyright for one of the most distinctive features of the iPhone. It follows Tim Cook’s veiled threat last week that the company “will not stand for having our IP ripped off and will use whatever weapons” to protect it. All we can say is, watch out Palm Pre!
Or, if you want to get specific, any “touchscreen device, method and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics”.
The iPhone isn’t mentioned anywhere in patent number 7,479,949, which lists Steve Jobs as an inventor, but you can see the accompanying design, and it looks remarkably like an iPhone to us.
That suggests Apple could use the same technology to power multitouch Macs, including a tablet or netbook.
Crucially the patent includes multitouch gestures (where “one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command”), so rival phone makers won’t be allowed to use anything similar without preparing to face the wrath of Apple’s lawyers.
It’s not the only multitouch patent, true, but this could be a serious weapon in Apple’s arsenal if war breaks out with Palm over the Pre’s touch capabilities, or anyone else for that matter. Let’s not forget the BlackBerry Storm also uses multitouch.
TBC | £TBC | Apple (Via The Register)
