ElectricTech on iPod saga

from ElectricTech:

-->'It's still very early in the process,' said Mr John Ferrell, co-founder of Carr & Ferrell LLP and a leading Silicon Valley patent attorney.

'Apple still has a lot of options. This is not like a Supreme Court decision.'

Apple could file a declaration that it invented the technology before Microsoft filed its patent request.

The evidence is all the iPods already on the market at the time.

In such cases, a company can ask the patent office to investigate and determine the inventor.<--

Please note that, in a response to the PTO rejection, Apple already did file a declaration swearing behind the date of filing of the Microsoft patent application. Nothing was said about this, and the 102(e) rejection was restated.