German Court Finds Apple's 'Slide To Unlock' Patent Invalid

New submitter anderzole writes "Germany's Federal Patent Court on Thursday invalidated all of Apple's claims for its slide-to-unlock patent. They death blow for Apple's slide to unlock patent was likely a Swedish phone called the Neonode N1m that launched well before the iPhone and featured its own slide to unlock implementation. The N1m was released in 2005 while Apple's own patent for slide to unlock wasn't filed until December of 2005."

neonode info

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=Tj-KS2kfIr0
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neonode

Re:Now Apple should pay 1/10th of it's value

[Anonymous Coward]

I think the idea was for Apple to pay 1/10 of the companies worth not the patents.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Now Apple should pay 1/10th of it's value

[elashish14]

The onus lies on the patent applicant to do prior art searches.

And in this case, it's not even a question of prior art - everyone knows that Apple's actions are a deliberate troll attempt to impede the viability of competitors. That in itself is a crime.

Re:What I want to know is...

[AK Marc]

Much of the process is to make sure the paperwork is correct, not the content. If they indicate no prior art, it is not the job of the examiner to verify that claim, but to accept it and if someone else challenges it, the paperwork demonstrates the "no prior art" claim, and providing some invalidates the patent.

They do not have sufficient resources to evaluate the content, just the format. The two are unrelated.