Reexamination Request Filed Against Another Apple Patent

[wraggster]

After the rubber-banding (http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/10/23/1551229/us-patent-office-invalidates-apples-rubber-banding-patent), 'Steve Jobs' heuristics (http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/12/07/2346246/steve-jobs-patent-on-iphone-declared-invalid) and pinch-to-zoom patents (http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/12/20/2212213/apples-pinchzoom-patent-invalidated-by-preliminary-uspto-ruling), another Apple patent in use against Samsung comes under pressure. An anonymous filer, most likely Samsung, has filed areexamination request (http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/12/reexamination-requested-against-another.html) against Apple's RE41,922 patent on a 'method and apparatus for providing translucent images on a computer display.' It's not among the patents a California jury evaluated this summer, but one of four patents an ITC judge preliminarily found (http://www.fosspatents.com/2012/10/preliminary-itc-ruling-finds-samsung-in.html) Samsung to infringe. The reexamination request features five new pieces of prior art (three U.S. patents from the early 1990s and two Japanese patents), all of which dealt with translucent images. The patent office will decide next year whether to grant or deny the request for reexamination. Expect more such petitions targeting Apple patents.
http://apple.slashdot.org/story/12/12/22/2329253/reexamination-request-filed-against-another-apple-patent