The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has ruled that a patent that's central to the epic Apple v. Samsung intellectual property lawsuit is subject to reexamination, which could lead to portions of the patent — but probably not all of it — being invalidated.
Patent No. 7,844,915, referred to as the '915 patent, covers document scrolling. The patent office rejected all 21 claims of the patent, which means it is up for scrutiny — but it is unlikely that the patent would be invalidated in its entirety. Eighty-nine percent of patents subject to reexamination survive in some form or another, Brian Love, an assistant professor of law at Santa Clara University School of Law, has told Wired.
Just last week another Apple patent holding, a multi-touch related patent dubbed the "Steve Jobs" patent, was also tentatively invalidated. We saw the same thing in October with Apple's so-called "rubber-banding patent." In each case, the patent is merely being reexamined.
However, should a patent examiner determine a patent is invalid, it could have a significant effect on the damages Samsung owes Apple in the Apple v. Samsung case -- a jury trial determined that 19 Samsung smartphones violated this particular patent. Judge Koh has already denied Apple a permanent injunction against infringing Samsung devices.
Samsung submitted the filing to Judge Lucy Koh as part of ongoing post-trial decisions in the two companies' multi-faceted intellectual property battles. If the patent survives, but adjustments need to be made in order for it to be valid, it's also bad news for Apple.
"If Apple has to amend its claims to salvage the patent, it will not be able to recover damages for allegedly infringing activity that took place before the patent was amended," Love told Wired December 7. In layman's terms: Samsung would still be off the hook for this patent in Apple v. Samsung.
