Apple has gone patent crazy in hopes to try to maintain market dominance of the iPad which maybe seeing a 25% decrease in volume next quarter. Thankfully the patent office hasnt completely lost their mind and denied Apple a patent on the term “Multi-Touch”.
The US Patent & Trademark Office has refused to grant the company a trademark on the widely used industry term in a decision reached by the Appeals Board on September 23rd, upholding the initial refusal earlier this year, reports MacRumors.
The decision, which does not affect any of Apple’s numerous patents on multi-touch technology, allows others to use the term “Multi-touch” as a generic description of both the name of the collection of technologies used as well as a description of how users interact with such devices.
Apple had originally applied for the trademark on January 9th, 2007 — the day the iPhone was introduced — and long before the term was in widespread use.
Although Apple holds a number of patents on multi-touch technology and was the first to use the term widely in a mainstream, consumer-oriented way, it did not invent the underlying concept.
Multi-touch technologies have been around since 1982, when Canadian researchers at the University of Toronto first developed a system where a person could place fingers on a special glass and a camera behind it could register the imprints as input.
Thankfully we’ll be able to keep using the term “Multi-touch” to refer to devices that allow for multiple touch input!
