German court hands Apple victory over Motorola on "slide to unlock" patent
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The patent in question, EP1964022, is written so broadly that Apple seems to feel it can be applied against any sort of unlock gesture on any screen. The German court didn’t follow Apple down quite that far – they ruled that Apple’s patent doesn’t apply to the unlock circle that was introduced with Honeycomb (and is currently employed on the Galaxy Nexus and several other phones).
It 's curious that Apple got this far on the slide to unlock patent – Apple’s patent is of very questionable veracity since prior art – the slide to unlock gesture of the Neonode N1m (see photo below) preceded Apple’s patent application, and in fact other German courts have indicated doubt about the patents validity.
While Motorola will naturally hope to find an appellate court of a similar mind, the appeal isn’t without risk to Motorola; while they will attempt to find a judge who might pay more attention to prior art, Apple will undoubtedly try to convince an appeals court that the circular Android unlock pattern should also constitute a violation of Apple’s intellectual property. Another Apple patent, one on sliding images in a photo gallery, was scheduled to be adjudicated today as well, but was postponed for a couple weeks.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
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source: BBC News via FOSS Patents
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60 Comments
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57. MEeee posted on 17 Feb 2012, 09:13 0 0
All their families have iPhones, Motorola have no chance.
60. bizwiz posted on 18 Feb 2012, 04:48 0 0
Some here are missing the big picture "slide to unlock" is in fact a "drag and drop" feature, so the Apple patent should have been invalidated from the start.
4. sprockkets posted on 16 Feb 2012, 14:31 9 7
I thought the EU didn't allow BS software patents. Screw you Germany, and a big FU to apple.
And F Microsoft for patenting this BS as well and suing Motorola over it (and of course, only those devices running android).
http://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/descriptio n?CC=EP&NR=1040406B1&KC=B1&FT= D&ND=6&date=20030502&DB=worldw ide.espacenet.com&locale=en_EP
8. sprockkets posted on 16 Feb 2012, 14:50 1 1
I also got a big kick out of this, in that version 3.0 and thus 4.0 aren't' infringing, but of course, apple redid the patent to be even more vague so as to get android again in the US lawsuit.
DIAF apple.
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6. protozeloz posted on 16 Feb 2012, 14:41 20 2
Apple has the right slide to unlock was such an an unnatural way of doing things...
Wait a minute...http://i.imgur.com/s3Iqm.jpg
18. biophone posted on 16 Feb 2012, 16:22 4 2
Don't be mad at the player (apple) be mad at the game (german court system). Your right its a terrible lawsuit but the court system in germany is letting them get away with it.
22. protozeloz posted on 16 Feb 2012, 16:44 1 2
German court has to fail in favor of someone if the lawyer at apple side have a argument they have to fail in favor of them same as a murderer who everyone knows has gone serial yet evidence is not enough.
Personally not mad at apple just find the patents to be dumb and selfish , I'm an advocate of IP sharing without IP from rim Nokia Samsung and moto the iPhone won't be the same ,yet their IP is of reach from others even if those others have added their IP on top of it. The IP is so vague it fits anything. But things reach a limit eventually will settle down, just hope the damage done is not big for any of our favorite OS's
26. tedkord posted on 16 Feb 2012, 17:31 6 2
Yes. Don't be mad at defense lawyers who get murderers off with lies and faked evidence, be mad at the system that allows it. Don't blame the slave owners in the early days of the US, slavery was legal. Blame the laws.
What a tard philosophy. Be mad at the system, and at the unethical creeps who exploit it. They're both worthy of our hatred.
While we're at it, I suppose we shouldn't blame the patent trolls in China who are getting ipads banned. They're just playing the game.
27. remixfa posted on 16 Feb 2012, 17:37 3 5
the patent trolls in China??? lookout you mean that large tech company in chin that patented the ipad name back in 2001 and when apple infringed on it they tried to make a deal with apple.... to only have apple spit at them and go on using the name without paying a cent.
yup.. its definately their fault.... huh?
37. biophone posted on 16 Feb 2012, 19:18 0 0
The defense lawyers are just doing their jobs. If they knew the evidence was faked that goes against the game and makes them criminals. The game in the scenario the courts should of recognized the evidence was fake and reprimanded them. The lawyers weren't playing within the confines of this game. Apple is playing within the confines of the game and didn't fake any patents.
And I don't blame slave owners they didn't do it because their evil they did it because thats how they were raised and didn't know any better. Society was to blame for making them that way.
And remix got the third point for me thanks
