US patent office throws out Apple’s pinch-to-zoom claim against Samsung

US patent office throws out Apple's pinch-to-zoom claim against Samsung

For those of you eagerly following the seemingly never-ending legal battle between Apple and Samsung (cue crickets), a recent decision by the US Patent and Trademark Office has thrown a wrench into Apple’s master plan. According to documents filed by Samsung in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California on Sunday, Apple’s Patent No. 7,844,915, which covers the two-finger pinch-to-zoom gesture, was found wanting by the USPTO due to it being anticipated by other patents and declared otherwise non-patentable, much like its “overscroll bounce” claim. Apple has up to two months to dispute the decision, though whether or not that action would gain the company any ground, either with federal court or the Patent Trial and Appeal Board, remains to be seen.

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Via: PC World

Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn’t see it coming

Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn't see it coming

If the minutiae of people’s lives crowd your feeds and drives you to frustration, you really won’t be wanting this Samsung patent application to be approved. The USPTO filing outlines a process for creating a “life diary” by collecting all manner of information about your daily routine from your smartphone. Data such as where you’ve been, what the weather was like, what you’ve been listening to, et cetera, would be spun out in computer-generated sentences and compiled into a story of your day. Although it would lack the romanticism of a traditional, hand-written diary, we could see it having some use as a mundane log — as long as you’re happy for all that info to be recorded, that is. However, if this ever comes to fruition with sharing options, to boot, all the pictures of food, coffee house check-ins and FarmVille updates would seem insignificant in comparison. Some things, like the last time we sang along with the Bieb, are better left unshared.

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Samsung files patent for auto-generating life diary, Mayans didn’t see it coming originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Oct 2012 12:45:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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