If Apple's attorneys have the right touch to get patents for its "pinch" and other multitouch gestures used on the iPhone, the company may be able to put the touch on competitors that want to use the same gestures on their devices.
AP/Sakuma Is pinching proprietary? We may find out in the coming months as many companies, inspired by the success of Apple's iPhone, release their own multitouch-enabled laptops, smartphones and tablets. In doing so, these companies -- including RIM, Nokia and Synaptics -- may run afoul of multitouch patent applications recently filed by Apple.
"If Apple's patents are granted, the company could absolutely stop others from using similar technology," says Raj Abhyanker, a patent lawyer who used to write patent applications for Apple. "They'd also be in an especially good position to stop others from including certain features. Apple could stop [their use] not only on mobile devices but also desktops."
Patent experts contacted by Wired.com stressed that the patent office can take four or more years to grant patents, and Apple is far from certain to win these patents. Indeed, other companies, including BenQ-Siemens and Nokia, have also filed patent applications on a series of gestures and touch applications for multitouch devices. However, with more than 200 patent claims for the iPhone alone, including several multitouch-related patent applications, Apple is clearly seeking to control as much of the multitouch world as it can.
Multitouch technology itself is far from being an Apple invention. Jeff Han wowed the crowd at TED in 2006 with a demo of his multitouch research, and Bill Gates demo'd Microsoft's Surface Table in early 2007, months before the iPhone was released. Even Apple CEO Steve Jobs reportedly used Microsoft's work with tablet PCs as the jumping-off point for iPhone development.
However, the iPhone is arguably the first mainstream gadget to successfully implement a set of concrete touch gestures and link them to specific functions. Pinching zooms in and out. Double tapping initiates a "smart zoom" that hones in on a particular area of the screen. What's more, iPhone and iPod Touch users are now familiar with these gestures and their effects, and will expect to see other multitouch devices work the same way.
"It seems that Apple could win patent claims where they are directed toward a touchscreen user device," says Chad Peterman, an expert on patent and antitrust litigation and an attorney at Patterson Belknap Webb and Tyler. While a gesture like "the pinch" in and of itself is not patentable, if you connect that motion to a specific function on a popular device, it is possible to argue that other devices using the same technique are infringing, Peterman says.
If Apple's patent applications are successful, other manufacturers may have no choice but to implement multitouch gestures of their own. The upshot: You might pinch to zoom on your phone, swirl your finger around to zoom on your notebook, and triple-tap to zoom on the web-browsing remote control in your home theater.
That's an outcome many in the industry would like to avoid. Synaptics, a company that by most estimates supplies 65 to 70 percent of the notebook industry with its touchpad technology, is working on its own set of universal touch gestures that it hopes will become a standard. These gestures include scrolling by making a circular motion, moving pictures or documents with a flip of the finger, and zooming in or out by making, yes, a pinching gesture.
"My guess would be that 80 to 90 percent of consumer notebooks will have these new multigestures by the end of the year," says Mark Vena, vice president of Synaptics' PC business unit.
Years before the iPhone and iPod Touch were introduced, Apple began quietly filing detailed patents pertaining to the technology and user interface of its capacitive multitouch interface on the iPhone. The company is thought to have secured much of its multitouch and gesturing technology by acquiring a company called FingerWorks. Its founders, Wayne Westerman and John Elias, have continued working for Apple and filing multitouch patents. As far back as 2004, Apple had begun filing applications for multipoint touchscreens and gestures connected to those touchscreens, including the pinch as well as other important usability features. All together, there are around 200 patents filed for the iPhone alone.
This week, Apple filed yet another multitouch patent, this time for an advanced multitouch gesturing-control panel to be used in conjunction with Mac OS X.
For companies like Synaptics, which is trying to bring the rest of the industry up to speed with its own brand of multitouch technologies, Apple's pending patents could spell trouble.
At a basic level, winning a patent requires the development of "a new and useful process, machine or a composition of matter," according to the patent code. But there are other factors that weigh heavily in awarding a patent. Popularity often becomes a component in awarding some patents. There have also been cases where patents were awarded to companies who came up with novel uses or implementations for older technologies.
Multitouch may not be new, but "using the pinching motion where the zoom is relative to the space between the users fingers … meets the base requirement for patentability," according to Peterman.
William James, an attorney with Van Pelt, Yi & James, which counts Apple among its clients, agrees. "The technological pieces don't have to be new to be able to patent an interface like that," he says. "It helps, but a new application of existing technology will sometimes suffice."
While it would be hard to patent a simple flicking motion, the pinch in particular raises a red flag for some patent experts, who say that Apple could claim infringement if it is eventually awarded the patent.
Indeed, all indications are that the company is very serious about this technology. On the same day the iPhone launched, Apple even applied for a trademark in a Far East intellectual property office for the term "multi-touch." Yet it appears that the company is not trying to patent the entire multitouch concept, but rather trying to protect certain uses of it -- specifically the methods to interpret gestures, and in some cases, the gestures themselves. Whether Apple succeeds in that attempt is still uncertain.
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