To all of you who wondered if Apple indeed had the patents to back up its thinly veiled threats against Palm regarding the multi-touch feature of the iPhone and iPod Touch: it appears the answer is yes. On January 20th, 2009, Apple was awarded patent number 7,479,949 which appears to cover much of the iPhone’s multi-touch user interface. Apple’s earnings conference call was January 21st, the day after the patent was awarded. Small wonder that COO Tim Cook should say the following during the call (emphasis ours):