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A comment on Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent invalidated by USPTO.

Re:Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent invalidated by USPTO by greenyoda on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @06:34PM (#4945456)
As a result of this decision, could the holders of these prior touch-screen patents now sue Apple for infringement?

By the way, the "Hillis" in the Hillis patent[1] (filed in 2005) is none other than W. Daniel (Danny) Hillis[2], the founder of Thinking Machines.

[1] Patent 7,724,242: http://www.google.com/patents/US7724242?dq=7724242

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._Daniel_Hillis

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Re:Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent invalidated by USPTO by 48snickers on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @07:23PM (#4945640)
I imagine there's plenty of prior art supporting invalidating the Hillis patent, if it came to that.

For example, 1997: http://tangible.media.mit.edu/project/metadesk/

1:30 in the video seems to show the behavior described.

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Re:Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent invalidated by USPTO by abecedarius on Thursday December 20, 2012 @01:00AM (#4946479)
Yes, when I tried out Hillis's touchtable around 2005 my reaction was like "Cool! I'm finally seeing this kind of thing in person."
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Re:Apple's pinch-to-zoom patent invalidated by USPTO by marshray on Wednesday December 19, 2012 @06:53PM (#4945525)
I don't think "as a result of this decision". If their claims cover these things, they probably could have sued before this ruling just as easily.
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