Foss Patents is reporting that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has tentatively invalidated Apple's bounce scroll—sometimes referred to as "rubber banding"—patent possibly affecting the recent ruling in the Apple v. Samsung trial.


The patent in question concerns the bounce scroll feature in iOS: scroll too far, and whatever you're looking at bounces back into position. A Monday court filing from Samsung reveals that the USPTO has invalidated all of Apple's claims to it, US Patent No. 7,469,381. The patent has been rejected on prior art considerations—one concerning a "controlling content display" by AOL/Luigi Lira published on October 2 2003 and another a "continuous scrolling list with acceleration".

The USPTO claims "no inventive step" was found between the prior art and Apple's patent—so it's now up to the company to prove to the patent office or the appeals court that the IP was new. As for Samsung, it already found a workaround to avoid infringing the overscroll bounce patent—but it would likely reintroduce the feature if Apple can't back up its IP. [Foss Patents via Apple Insider]