Apple Loses More 'Tablet Wars' Its Patents Lack Innovation, And There Is Excluded Subject Matter

Not content with battling Samsung in many jusrisdictions over tablet computers, Apple is also in dispute with HTC over technology relating to tablet computers and smart phones. In a judgment of the English Patents Court issued on 4th July 2012, [2012] EWHC 1789 (Pat), Floyd J handed a resounding victory to HTC. The judge found that three out of four Apple patents were invalid as being obvious. A fourth Apple patent was found to be valid, but was also found not to be infringed.

One of the patents was concerned with the operation of a device with a touch screen and this patent was also found to be invalid as relating to subject matter excluded from protection. Specifically the patent was found to relate to a computer progam as such.

When considering a patent claim relating to computer implemented inventions it is necessary to consider the contribution the claimed invention makes to the art. It is only if the contribution is "technical" that the invention is found not to be excluded. In an earlier case, AT&T Knowledge Ventures [2009] EWHC 343 (Pat), Lewison J (as he then was) had stated that it was impossible to define the meaning of "technical" but considered that there were a number of signposts to what amounted to a relevant technical effect. These were:

"i) whether the claimed technical effect has a technical effect on a process which is carried on outside the computer;

ii) whether the claimed technical effect operates at the level of the architecture of the computer; that is to say whether the effect is produced irrespective of the data being processed or the applications being run;

iii) whether the claimed technical effect results in the computer being made to operate in a new way;

iv) whether there is an...