Thursday, April 4, 2013

German court invalidates Apple slide-to-unlock patent


In a legal victory for Google and Samsung, a German court has reportedly invalidated all patent claims related to Apple's "slide to unlock" user interface.


Today's ruling by Bundespatentgericht, Germany's federal patent court, is a setback for Apple, which has pressed the patent against Google's Motorola and Samsung in courts across Europe in attempts to secure injunctions preventing the companies' devices from being sold. However, the decision is appealable, according to Foss Patents blogger Florian Mueller, a paid consultant for several tech companies who was first to report on today's ruling.


The ruling, which Foss said was not unexpected by the companies involved, came at the end of a daylong session in which Apple proposed 14 amendments to salvage the patent. The court ruled that the invention described in the patent for "unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image" lacked the technical innovation to be granted a patent.


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