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Apple Successfully Patents Multitouch, Palm Cringes

Categories: Apple, Legal
By: , IntoMobile
Tuesday, January 27th, 2009 at 7:36 AM

The other day Palm snarled back at Apple for suggesting they were ripping off iPhone IP, but now Apple is armed with a big fat multitouch and swipe gestire patent which could smack Palm right in the face. The new Palm Pre, announced at CES a few weeks ago, featured some very familiar looking pinching gestures which drew audible swooning from the crowds, but had plenty of folks glancing at their iPhone at the same time. Assuming Apple has an iron grip on the patent and it isn’t disputed or worked around, the best scenario is if Palm forks over licensing fees to Apple so their last ditch at survival isn’t totally snuffed out. To see the specifics of Apple’s patent, hit up the US Patent Office.

[via World of Apple]

About The Author

Simon Sage

Simon Sage’s education largely surrounded writing, technology and online community, leading him to begin his blogging career at www.BlackBerryCool.com and to quickly discover a vibrant and active community surrounding BlackBerry and mobile technology. In exploring RIM’s platform, he has learned what enterprises are looking for in mobility as well as what makes the innocuous BlackBerry so appealing to them. Recently Simon’s been covering RIM’s gradual move into an already-crowded consumer market, and the impact of burgeoning challengers, such as the iPhone, as well as long-time leaders, like Nokia, on BlackBerry’s advancement. With plenty of content under his belt, Simon will be branching off a bit to see what other smartphone manufacturers are working on while still using BlackBerry as a barometer. At IntoMobile, you can count on his posts being even-handed, well-informed and thought-out.

  • Will Park

    As much as I like my iPhone 3G, if Apple keeps multi-touch off the Palm Pre, Jobs and I are going to have problems….

  • sonyanews

    Other mobile companies should stress about multi-touch capability mostly because of mobile applications. Multi-touch is one of the main things developers have been wanting from the G1 and Android that has not come through. Now that most serious mobile developers have been working in the Apple environment, the lack of multi-touch on other mobile phone systems could seriously limit their ability to create intuitive applications and to use the same coding already used in iPhone apps.