[bvw]

Yes, and I wonder if those touch pads where made transparent and placed over a screen, would that be considered a violation of the Apple patent? I also wonder what finger motions where enabled using data gloves. That’s also an older technology.

[Cboldt]

-- I wonder if those touch pads where made transparent and placed over a screen, would that be considered a violation of the Apple patent? --

Not the pads, in isolation. The claim is a combination of technology and user interaction.

I wonder if the Synaptics technology was raised as prior art, with the examiner arguing that putting the gesture "on the screen" is an obvious combination of touch screen (in general), and multi-fingertip gesture technology on a touchpad.