Apple got the slide to lock patent
Posted: 06 Feb 2013, 19:44
The US patent bureau excels yet again. And as always the decision is clear and transparent as ink. Apple has gotten a patent for the slide to lock that Google had applied for too - but did not get!
So now they can go after Samsung again that did not understand that this was an Apple invention...
Regarding that functionality I can clearly remember that I unlocked a toilet door in a barn in 1967 with exactly that same functionality
Furtheremore:
Yup: rounded corners
Never mind the fact that everybody knows that Apple did not invent them.
Google did not even believe that rounded corners were patentable, which makes sense....So that leaves one question open:
What really is the US patent bureau rewarding here?
So now they can go after Samsung again that did not understand that this was an Apple invention...
Slide-to-unlock functionality has become a major sticking point with handset makers. Apple, which was granted a patent for the feature in 2011, has charged both Motorola and Samsung with violating patents related to the functionality.
Regarding that functionality I can clearly remember that I unlocked a toilet door in a barn in 1967 with exactly that same functionality
Furtheremore:
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Apple application No. D675,639 for "ornamental design for a display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface," which includes illustrations of the familiar horizontal bars with rounded corners found at the bottom of locked iOS screens since the original iPhone's debut in 2007.
Yup: rounded corners
Never mind the fact that everybody knows that Apple did not invent them.
Google did not even believe that rounded corners were patentable, which makes sense....So that leaves one question open:
What really is the US patent bureau rewarding here?