Apple has just netted itself some major patents, at least one of which will probably have repercussions for the ongoing legal battles between the company and just about every other gadget maker on the planet. A full 25 patents went Apple’s way, but the big guy in this instance is No. 8,223,134: “Portable electronic device, method, and graphical user interface for displaying electronic lists and documents.”
That’s a patent on showing lists and documents on your phone, that you can interact with and scroll through using your fingers and multitouch, rather than a physical keyboard. Yup, that’s a patent on pretty much every touchscreen smartphone OS, so it’s a doozy. As PatentlyApple puts it:
Apple’s iPhone truly reinvented the smartphone and Apple’s granted patent reflects the broad range of graphical user interface innovations that they brought to market. Apple’s patent covers UI modules covering blogging, email, telephone, camera, video player, calendar, browser, widgets, search, notes, maps and more importantly, a multi-touch interface.
Given just how wide of a patent this is, it could have major effects on the current legal battles that Apple is involved in, especially with Samsung.
[via PatentlyApple, Fortune]
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