Apple Inc. (AAPL) Key Patent Re-examined: U.S. Patent Office

NOTE: This story contains updated, revised information as of 3 p.m. ET Thursday, which corrects information culled from the original article link that was posted Wednesday afternoon, which stated that an Apple patent was invalidated. We apologize for the confusion.

As patent wars continue for Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL), the tech giant may have one weapon removed from its arsenal by a U.S. government entity. What does this mean in the patent wars, and how will it affect Apple’s current battle with Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., which is currently under appeal in the U.S. judicial system?

Stating it as a regular process of auditing patents, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Wednesday rejected 21 claims of an Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) patent that is used in its mobile devices – the so-called “pinch-to-zoom” touch gesture, which was essentially the central patent that Apple defended vigorously against Samsung and won an initial $1 billion award. Samsung certainly wanted to act quickly in learning of this move, trying to nullify the initial award. The USPTO announced that it is re-examining Apple’s rights to the patent. How was this received by the judge who presided over the trial?

As a whole, Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) has an extensive patent portfolio, so if it loses this one patent upon a further review, it may not change the game for the company, but for as much as Apple has leaned on that patent in many of its patent fights, this may be consequential. While the ink was still wet, Samsung took this to the courtroom of U.S. Judge Lucy Koh – who presided over the aforementioned U.S. patent trial – in an attempt to have the initial trial thrown out, while Apple is moving to ban U.S. imports and sales of several Samsung devices that was based on this patent in particular.

Samsung, of course, claimed that this re-examination is “relevant” to is retrial motion, but Koh has shot down both the Samsung and Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) motions at this point. Considering that the jury awarded the $1 billion decision basically on the back of the patent, when the jury ruled that 21 of 24 Samsung devices infringed on this patent. All 21 claims on the patent were rejected due to claims from other patents, including one from another U.S. firm and one from Japan. Apple will have the chance to contest this re-examination as part of the ongoing patent proceedings.