Apple Awarded Touchstone iPhone Patent

Apple was granted a key patent covering many aspects of the iPhone interface as well as potentially other “multi-touch” handsets. CEO Steve Jobs was listed among the inventors in a 358-page filing awarded last week.

The patent covers the iPhone, gestures and the handset’s OS X operating software.

U.S. Patent No. 7479949 comes saber-rattling between Apple and other touch-screen handset makers. Last week, interim Apple CEO Tim Cook warned unnamed competitors that the Cupertino, Calif.-based company would protect its intellectual property.

Although not named, many saw Cook’s statement as a shot across the bow of Palm, which recently released the Pre, a touch-screen handset aimed at the iPhone. “If faced with legal action, we are confident that we have the tools necessary to defend ourselves, a Palm spokeswoman responded.

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Ed Sutherland is a veteran technology journalist who first heard of Apple when they grew on trees, Yahoo was run out of a Stanford dorm and Google was an unknown upstart. Since then, Sutherland has covered the whole technology landscape, concentrating on tracking the trends and figuring out the finances of large (and small) technology companies.

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