Apple has not been able to get a multi-touch patent.

Patent wars are now in full swing. All against all - probably, this is how you can describe the current situation. Of course, sometimes companies seem to help each other, but obviously not for nothing. The other day there was an interesting news: it turns out that on January 9, 2007, Apple filed a patent application describing the multitouch that we are used to. The patent application just described a type of touch display interface called “multi-touch”. You can imagine what would happen if this application were satisfied with the patent service.

But at least this patent bureau acted reasonably and denied the corporation the possibility of “appropriating” the right to the term “multi-touch”. Probably, if Apple did get this patent, patent wars would have reached the apogee of absurdity. Although, and now all that is happening in the field of patent law, can not be called a logical business.
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Employees of the United States Patent and Trademark Office explained their decision by saying that the term “multi-touch” is too general, and a single company cannot own a patent for a specified type of touch-screen interface, despite the fact that multitouch is used in some very successful products. Interestingly, the patent application was issued on the same day that the first iPhone was announced.

But the term itself was used long before the release of this device. For example, Jeff Khan used the term back in 2005. It would be nice if employees of patent offices acted in the same way in some other cases, since there are so many examples where very “general” terms and products are being patented.

Via mashable