Patent office invalidates Apple’s so-called ‘pinch-to-zoom’ patent

Apple Pinch-to-Zoom

Score another win for Apple’s (AAPL) rivals: The United States Patent and Trademark Office on Wednesday struck down one of the company’s most intimidating patents. As AppleInsider reports, the USPTO invalidated Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 7,844,915, the so-called “pinch-to-zoom” patent that Apple used to successfully sue rival Samsung (005930) for alleged intellectual property infringement this past summer. The patent itself isn’t for all pinch-to-zoom technology but rather a certain type of pinch-to-zoom technology that’s adapted to one-finger scrolling on touch screens. This is actually the second major Apple patent that the USPTO has struck down in recent months as the office in September temporarily invalidated the company’s patent for the “rubber band” effect found on iOS devices.

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This article was originally published by BGR