Tokyo Court Says Samsung Infringed Apple 'Bounce Back' Patent

Reuters reports on a decision from a Tokyo court ruling that Samsung has infringed Apple's "bounce back" patent. The report notes that the decision comes months after the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) ruled that the patent was invalid, but the agency reversed that decision just last week, reconfirming the validity of the key claim of Apple's patent.

Apple claimed that Samsung had copied the "bounce-back", in which icons on its smartphones and tablets quiver back when users scroll to the end of an electronic document. Samsung has already changed its interface on recent models to show a blue line at the end of documents.

In the past couple of months, the "bounce back" ruling has come under heavy scrutiny with a number of claims found invalid in multiple rulings. The invalid declaration allowed Samsung to continue to sell older phone models that used the feature.

But with that key claim being reconfirmed after reexamination last week, Apple has now defended it twice against challenges, giving the patent stronger presumptive validity in its court cases.

The patent was successfully used by Apple in its U.S. lawsuit against Samsung, which yielded a $1 billion judgment. In November, there will be a trial to redetermine the portion of damages that Samsung must pay Apple after the ruling was partly thrown out due to jury error.