Re:A device with a touchscreen and few buttons was obvious
by danielweber on Sunday August 26, 2012 @10:45PM
(#4437192)
The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.
I've been agreeing with your other points, but I must disagree with this specific. Absence of evidence is definitely evidence of absence. Keep in mind that "evidence" is not the same as "proof."
Another rationale is that they would have needed a unanimous opinion to overturn the patent on prior-art. And since they weren't going to get a unanimous opinion, they skipped it because they couldn't over turn the patent.
Without knowing all of the jury instructions, it hard to know exactly what happened.