The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has advanced the process to invalidate one of Apple's original iPhone design patents. The decision, which moves the process along a bit farther was made on August 5, twice for obviousness, once for obviousness in connection with a different patent application, and once for lack of novelty.
The D'677 patent was used in the first Apple versus Samsung patent trial, with 10 devices found infringing the design patent. Two of the devices in violation were found to be in violation of only this patent and no others. At stake is the
remaining $548 million doled out in
the first trial, and pared down over appeals, and retrials.
The patent being evaluated, US Design Patent D618,677. is a design patent often described by Samsung as the "rectangle with rounded corners" patent and is generally applies for the original iPhone and iPhone 3G designs. US design patent 618,678 is similar, but refers more to the iPhone 4 and 5 design -- and was used in part in this invalidation ruling against the D'677 patent.
Patent analyst Florian Mueller was the first to report on it, and claims that Apple will have difficulty fighting it. Mueller believes that the multiple reasons cited for invalidation, as well as the long period between the "anonymous" request for invalidation and this ruling by the USPTO are factors are working against Cupertino. However, other rulings by the agency have taken longer as of late, and the current time period between request and ruling is slightly less than the average analysis time.
The request, likely filed by Samsung, was made
to the USPTO in 2013. A final determination isn't likely this year, and can still be appealed by Apple. The D'677 patent wasn't used in the second patent trial.
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