According to reports on several sites, Apple was awarded a monstrous 358-page patent covering the touch screen, graphical user interface, and methods that combine to define the iPhone user experience. This could be a huge blow for the several iPhone ‘clones’ out there.

Dating back to September of 2007 and granted officially today, U.S. Patent No. 7479949 lists many inventors; notably, Apple co-founder and chief executive Steve Jobs, iPhone software director Scott Forstall, and FingerWorks co-founder Wayne Westerman. (FingerWorks was responsible for gadgets with an opaque surface that could respond to gesture controls before being acquired by Apple to aid its multi-touch efforts several years ago.)

So now Apple essentially owns the ‘iPhone experience’ type of UI, with specific types of ‘gestures’ and connected UI elements, and gives the company solid ground to potentially challenge any type of iPhone “killers” out there now or that come out in the future. The only thing we can say is: Palm (and Blackberry) had better dot their I’s and cross their T’s, and study the patent carefully.