Apple’s New Patent Could Devastate Other Smart Phone Creators

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One of the best features of any smart phone is the touch screen. We all love to be able to quickly scroll through our apps, find numbers, and send texts without having to deal with slow or cumbersome keypads, however, Apple’s new patent could ruin that for anyone owning a smart phone that isn’t the iPhone.

In 2007, Apply filed for a patent on its state-of-the-art touchscreen. That patent was finally granted. The obtaining of this patent is great for Apple, which has long been an industry leader in modern personal electronics, but its bad for every other company seeking to compete with the technologic giant. What does this new patent mean for all smart phone makers? That Apple could potentially sue every competitor with a touch screen – even those creating touch screen tablets that rival the iPad, as well as those creating touchscreen mp3 players similar to the iPod touch.

Apple’s patent states that is covers “a computer-implemented method, for use in conjunction with a portable multifunction device with a touch screen display, [that] comprises displaying a portion of page content, including a frame displaying a portion of frame content and also including other content of the page, on the touch screen display.”

In addition to basic touch screen functions, the patent covers multi-touch gestures like pinch-to-zoom. There really isn’t a touch screen function that Apple’s patent doesn’t cover. Foss Patents’ Florian Mueller expressed concern over Apple’s acquisition of its new patent stating, “this patent covers a kind of functionality without which it would be hard to build a competitive smartphone.”

Many other smart device creators are now seeking to invalidate the patent. Although the patent could be interpreted to only apply to web browsers, other industry leaders fear that Apple could put them out of business and stop other device creators from building smart devices entirely. Apple has yet to state whether it plans on taking its competitors out of the market, and it seems as of right now that they have simply sought the patent to protect themselves in the future should any other company have attempted seeking the patent first.