Apple never had a utility patent on the iPhone until patent No. 8,451,232 was issued on May 28, 2013 , only five months ago. It is named PORTABLE MULTI-FUNCTION DEVICE, METHOD, AND GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACE FOR INTERACTING WITH USER INPUT ELEMENTS IN DISPLAYED CONTENT. The patent was applied for in Dec 19, 2007 being almost two and a half years after Price Setter’s TRANSACTION ARBITER SYSTEM AND METHOD patent No. 8,533,097 was filed.
Apple’s Patent only claims a multi function device with a touch screen capable of performing specific gestures on a webpage in response to detecting a contact with a finger on the touch screen.
Before this patent, Apple Inc. only held design patents on the iPhone and patents on the functions and features of the interactive screen, which have been used by Apple Inc. on Infringement claims against Motorola, Google and Samsung.