Apple's Claim 19 of '381 Patent Rejected by USPTO in Final Office Action: Impact on Apple v. Samsung Damages Can Be Huge ~pj

The claim 19 of the '381 patent that Apple relied upon so heavily against Samsung at trial, the bounce back patent, has now been finally rejected by the USPTO, as it ruled there is prior art that anticipated the '381 patent (Lira, PCT Publication No. WO 03/081458 by Luigi Lira; and Ording, US Patent No. 7,786,975). The jury in Apple v Samsung didn't credit any prior art offered, but it looks like it should have. This impacts the damages award by that jury, as Samsung puts it in a notice [PDF] to the court:

This Final Office Action by the USPTO is relevant because it finally rejects multiple claims of the '381 patent as being anticipated under 35 U.S.C. §102 by PCT Publication No. WO 03/081458 to Lira. This final rejection includes claim 19, which is the only claim of the '381 patent at issue in this action. The jury found at trial that 21 accused Samsung products infringed claim 19 of the '381 patent-specifically, the Captivate, Continuum, Droid Charge, Epic 4G, Exhibit 4G, Fascinate, Galaxy Ace, Galaxy Prevail, Galaxy S, Galaxy S 4G, Galaxy S II (AT&T), Galaxy S II (i9100), Galaxy Tab, Galaxy Tab 10.1 (WiFi), Gem, Indulge, Infuse 4G, Mesmerize, Nexus S 4G, Replenish, and Vibrant. The jury awarded damages as to 18 of these products. Some, but not all, of these damages awards have been vacated for new trial.

Apple's case keeps getting smaller and smaller. This is a final office action, and happily for Samsung, it was ruled on while Apple v. Samsung has not yet been completed. The judge gets the final say on how much this will matter in the immediate, but longterm, this is huge.