It certainly seems to be a hearty and moral victory for Apple that has won the patent covering much of its iPhone's multitouch user interface. Apple was awarded the U. S. Patent No. 7479949 last Tuesday.

The 358-page long patent covers touch screen, graphical user interface, and many of the methods that the iPhone uses to show data, such as pinch-to-zoom Web browsing and swipe-to-scroll.

The patent was granted to a number of executives of Apple, including Steve Jobs, Scott Forstall - chief of iPhone software, and Wayne Westerman, one of the establishers of a company called Fingerworks that Apple took over in 2005.

Having won the patent, Apple's interim chief executive, Tim Cook warned that Apple will take aggressive and severe actions against the company or person, who is found "ripping off" the company's intellectual property. Mr. Cook said, "iPhone competitors should understand that Apple will not stand for having our (intellectual property) ripped off, and we'll use whatever weapons that we have at our disposal."