Stupid patent granted to Apple

[starbuckk]

http://m.zdnet.com/blog/mobile-news...apple-patent-slide-to-unlock/5199?tag=nl.e539

What we have here is a prime example of why software patents need to be abolished. Your Andriod device is now guaranteed to infringe on a patent that has NO BUSINESS being patented.

This should go viral and every Android user needs to flood their representatives with complaints. Lets see if we can shut this one down and put Apple ant the morons at the patent office in perspective!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

 

[mikefrombx]

This patent has already been struck down as invalid when bought to court by apple in their case against Samsung in the Netherlands. It existed before the apple patent application and therefore can be dismissed if ever bought to court on the basis of using prior art.

sent from my incredible

 

[brillrick]

Every Android device now infringes Apple patent: Slide to unlock | ZDNet

What we have here is a prime example of why software patents need to be abolished. Your Andriod device is now guaranteed to infringe on a patent that has NO BUSINESS being patented.

This should go viral and every Android user needs to flood their representatives with complaints. Lets see if we can shut this one down and put Apple ant the morons at the patent office in perspective!

Sent from my SCH-I510 using Tapatalk

I think you might be jumping the gun a bit. In order to infringe a patent, the offending must violate the exact feature to the letter.

A device with a touch-sensitive display may be unlocked via gestures performed on the touch-sensitive display. The device is unlocked if contact with the display corresponds to a predefined gesture for unlocking the device. The device displays one or more unlock images with respect to which the predefined gesture is to be performed in order to unlock the device. The performance of the predefined gesture with respect to the unlock image may include moving the unlock image to a predefined location and/or moving the unlock image along a predefined path. The device may also display visual cues of the predefined gesture on the touch screen to remind a user of the gesture. In addition, there is a need for sensory feedback to the user regarding progress towards satisfaction of a user input condition that is required for the transition to occur.

I'm not saying what android does violates (that's for people smarter than me to figure out), but remember the patent law is strict on this.

Also, I think that sometimes software patents are good, they spur innovation. I was looking at the Nokia N9 recently and they do a double tap the screen to unlock. If there wasn't a patent on slide to unlock, Nokia could have gone the lazy route and copied that. Or even Android's face unlock, if they didn't have to design around Apple's version of slide to unlock, would there be much motivation for android to develop this method of unlocking a phone?

 

[bclapper]

What we have here is a prime example of why software patents need to be abolished.

Read this. I don't pretend to have a great understanding of the patent system but Nilay Patel is a law grad and he does a great job of explaining it for the common folk. Bottom line: you can say "altered", but "abolished" is simply incorrect.

 

[cadzilla74]

Get ready for more of the same. With Jobs gone Apple has nothing left but empty suits trying to "protect their imaginary inventions". They are a rudderless ship trying to make money off the backs of the true innovators of the Android platform simply because they don't have an original thought in their collective heads but they sure do have a lot of will to paraphrase Jackson Browne to, "spend lawyers, time and money" ....