Apple's auto-complete patent claim rejected: Samsung gains advantage in US lawsuit

In what could deal a major blow to Apple’s patent lawsuit against Samsung in the US, the country’s Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has rejected some claims of an Apple patent related to auto-complete technology.

That particular patent (U.S. Patent no. 8,074,172) was used in the most recent patent dispute with Samsung in the US. The USPTO Office Action ruled that two patents had anticipated claim 18 of Apple’s US Patent No. 8,074,172, according to a court filing by Samsung.

The patent titled “Method, device, and graphical user interface providing word recommendations” is better known as the auto-complete patent as it relates to prompting users words as they input text. It was one of five patents Samsung had been accused of violating in the most recent trial, where a jury ruled that Samsung should pay Apple about US$119 million in damages.

During the course of the trial two patents were thrown out by the court, but the auto-complete patent was not among them and this latest Office Action could further reduce Apple’s damages claim. Samsung was already found guilty of violating the text prediction patent in January.

The decision is not final, though, and Apple does have appeal options, though it’s not yet clear whether the company will exercise them. Samsung’s filing is for bringing the USPTO decision to the notice of the court, as it’s very relevant to the defence of the violation.

The Office Action comes at a time when Apple and Samsung have agreed to end patent litigation outside the US this week . Samsung’s strategy largely has been to get the court to not see the merit in Apple’s patents that are under the lawsuit’s purview. In May, the jury found that Samsung violated two patents out of a total of five that were asserted by Apple. These were Apple’s “quick links” patent for links within text messages, and a partial infringement of the infamous slide-to-unlock patent.