Apple Awarded Design Patent For Slide-to-Unlock UI
By - Source: USPTO
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36 comments
Also wins design patent for the original iPhone.
Apple has been awarded the design patent for iOS' slide-to-unlock user interface, as well as the design for the original iPhone.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office approved Apple's No. D675,639 patent for "ornamental design for a display screen or portion thereof with a graphical user interface." Apple was granted a patent for the feature itself in 2011.
Apple also received approval for design patent No. D675,612, which relates to the "ornamental design of an electronic device." Specifically, it relates to the rounded corners situated on the iPhone.
Meanwhile, during December 2012, Apple won a design patent for the iPhone 4.
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I also wonder who has a patent of having text appearing on a screen when keys are pressed on a keyboard.
I also wonder....
I also wonder who has a patent of having text appearing on a screen when keys are pressed on a keyboard.
I also wonder....
...More fuel for Apple to continue their patent war with.
There, I just patented gum wrappers. Where's my money, Wrigleys?
To be fair, they didn't come up with the concept, they just updated it so that the graphics follow your finger.
Still, doesn't really matter since all a competitor needs to do is have their slide to unlock feature work left-to-right as well as right-to-left or similar and they wouldn't be infringing on this.
They surely didn't... I can recall visiting some technically entertaining Macromedia Flash sites from around 10 years ago, when Flash 4 & 5 were king. Sites with interesting intro/time wasters and cheesy event driven slide-to-open bars like this that developers would stitch into a site to allow a user to navigate it. That's just an example.
Prior art alone should invalidate this patent.
It only seems ridiculous because it is.
We are at the sad step in tech evolution where stupid patents and trademarks are awarded by morons that have no understanding whatsoever of the consequences. To them, it does not matter that by awarding these patents they are in fact impeding competition and hampering progress. Broad/generic patents should never be allowed, because resources are being spent in order to find avenues to avoid infringement instead of being spent to advance real technology. Not to mention the waste on legal battles. This is similar to patenting the circular shape of a wheel by a single car company, leaving all the rest scratching their heads to find ways around that.
My faith in mankind just went south a little.
You don't get it do you? Someone paints a yellow arrow on the inside of their house.. who cares? Now use that same designed Yellow arrow on a sign that points people somewhere, that is different. There is a purpose. millions of people didn't see that slide to unlock demo 10 years ago. People did see it on an iPhone though..
So just to be fair, they did design it for an application of unlocking their smartphone...