From: "Rich Gauszka" 

Interesting article at the link examining Apple's patents for multi-touch
screen, multi-finger gestures, etc.

http://www.unwiredview.com/2007/01/16/apples-iphone-is-it-really-well-protected
-by-patents/

To find out which of the cool iPhone features has been patented by Apple
and are now protected from replication and which ones you can expect to be
copied soon by the likes of Nokia, Samsung or Motorola, we've combed
through the U.S. Patent and Trademark database and checked all relevant
Apple's patents.

And we came to a conclusion that this time Steve Jobs did his homework and
most of the key features that make iPhone an iPhone will not be easily
copied by competitors. This applies to Multi touch display, the idea to use
full screen of the device for User Interface, scrolling, zooming and other
finger gestures, soft on screen controls, multifunctionality, proximity,
ambient light sensors and many other functions. Here are the details:

....

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