Apple Gets Apparent Killer Patent

Apple got a broad – some say “incredibly broad” – multitouch patent Wednesday on swiping and how many fingers do the swiping and we shall doubtlessly find out in the fullness of time after the liberal and tedious application of jurisprudence whether or not, as some suggest, it covers all capacitive touchscreens everywhere including tablets. It is patent number 7,966,578 entitled “Portable multifunction device, method, and graphical user interface for translating displayed content.” It governs how content moves around the screen when touched: one finger an entire page, two fingers just the content inside a smaller, so-called frame. It extends to productivity apps and maps.

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