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."

Re:neonode info

[Takatata]

Could someone please explain, why the parent is modded Offtopic? The article clearly mentions Neonode N1m as possible reason for the invalidation of this patent. The parent posted a link to a youtube presentation of the Neonode and a Wikpedia article of the neonode. Definitely not Offtopic.

Re:It's sad

[tqk]

That something like this even comes to court.

What's sad is something like this was awarded a patent. I have two (physical) slide to unlock buttons on the base of my laptop. Why were they awarded a patent for doing the same in software?!? How much time, money, and effort has that stupid decision sucked out of the numerous justice systems where this raised its head?

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

[ThisIsSaei]

Um, that's exactly the right way.

Re:neonode info

[AK Marc]

Because it was posted AC and someone else said it was a goatse troll. So people modded it down without looking.

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

[Takatata]

I don't think so. Whether a patent is frivolous or not is a matter of opinion. Great fodder for lawyers and more often than not won by the side with deeper pockets. A more general solution would be much more desirable.

Re: It's sad

[Takatata]

Problem is if apple didnt patent it someone else would have filed a patent years later and sued apple

Yes.

It's a no win for apple, patent and they're the bad guy, don't patent and they get sued

No. Patents are not like trademarks. If you don't defend them you don't lose them. Maybe Apple is forced to patent silly stuff. Nobody would complain if this was all they do. But nobody forces Apple to be an ******* and actually use the silly patents to sue other companies. This makes them the bad guys.

Apple faithful mod anything anti-Apple down

[Sycraft-fu]

You see it in any thread discussing Apple. Anything that reflects badly on Apple, no matter how true and accurate, gets down modded. Usually there are more than enough upmods to offset it, but it happens.

There are Apple fanboys that just cannot, will not, accept that Apple has every done anything wrong, every been anything but 100% innovative, etc. So they just to Apple's defense at every opportunity. Same thing with your post, same thing that is likely to happen to my post. They'll "defend" Apple by trying to silence people who say things unflattering.

Re:Apple faithful mod anything anti-Apple down

[Zontar The Mindless]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but do not underestimate the nutjob factor, either.

It is sad but true that there are people having such a low sense of self-worth that they're compelled to validate themselves by identifying with some One True Group to the point of exclusion of logic and reason, should they conflict with OTG dogma.

I've noticed, though, that Apple seem especially good at inspiring these sorts of followers.