USPTO invalidates Apple's "rubber-banding" patent asserted against Samsung
This just helps illustrate the absurdity of the US patent system. Samsung and Apple have already been at this for over a year and a half (longer if you count their pre-lawsuit discussions).Now, after we've been through lawsuit filings, discovery, back-and-forth over injunctions and a trial and gotten a verdict... The patent office turns around and says: "On second thought, we shouldn't have issued that patent in the first place.", which itself will be reexamined and appealed and ... adding onto the existing pile of appeals.I happen to think that the patent office's invalidation is correct, but even if you don't... this is no way to run a railroad. Successful reexaminations should be a rare, exceptional case in a properly functioning patent system. Instead, we have case after case turning on them (Oracle v Google, the Lodys reexamination requests, ...).Here's a radical idea: Maybe the patent office should work harder to not grant patents it is likely to invalidate later.