By 
One of the patents that forced a ban of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus in the United States has been deemed invalid in a UK courtroom, but don’t expect the overseas decision to make any difference when it comes to lifting said ban. In a separate legal tiff between Apple and HTC, Judge Christopher Floyd ruled that three of the four patents the Taiwanese manufacturer is accused of infringing upon are not even legally valid. In the case of the fourth, valid patent, it was found that HTC was not guilty of committing any intellectual property crimes.
Among the three invalid patents was the infamous claim to the slide-to-unlock feature found on most Android smartphones, one of the US patents that Apple leveraged against Samsung in recent proceedings concerning the Galaxy Nexus. The decisions of the UK courtroom will have no bearing on the current state of affairs in the US, but may offer a bit of ammunition on the Google side of things for manufacturers faced with defending slide-to-unlock functionality in the future.
[via Bloomberg]
Next up, the BS Siri search patent!
Great win for Android, keep it coming.
The “Siri patent” is a joke, but I hear that Apple’s next patent in the pipeline is going to be even bigger. It’s going to be a patent for “the patent”. That way, they can claim to have invented everything. Al Gore better watch out, because that whole “I was instrumental in the creation of the internet” business is going to require some healthy licensing payments to Apple.
Apple. Latin for “bunch of tools”.
Good for the UK to manage to be both un-corrupted and intelligent enough to realize that a touch screen can accept one of two inputs a touch or a slide. A gesture is just a complicated slide. There is nothing revolutionary about this. No one is trying to trick Apple customers into buying an Andriod product because of this incredibly generic GUI interaction.
What HTC phone have slide to unlock? slide where, horizontal, vertical, omnidirectional? Iphone only slides to unlock horizontally how can they sue people for unlocking any other way? dumbass.
You are thinking in one-direction swipe left-to-right…that’s the dumbass mistake. Apple’s U.S. Patent No. 8,046,721 “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 pre-defined gesture for unlocking the device.”
So nobody can unlock their phone using a touch gesture? Sorry but apple should have never got thepatent in the first place. The patent system needs to be revamped.
Yep, not saying I agree with it… just clearing up a misconception for the OP.
Now if only the genius judges in the U.S. can figure out there is now way that patent (as well as “unified search”) should be valid we might be making some progress. I mean how the hell else do you unlock a touch screen phone. Only having to tap the screen would cause an infinite amount of accidental unlocks. Which only leaves some form of sliding your finger across the screen.
Actually, the only patent that did force a ban of the Galaxy Nexus is the “unified search” patent.
Anyway, this is good news.
But how can anyone patent unified search? Google itself already does that. When you search something, you have access to web sites, images, videos, news, store. I can’t even finish. I’m so pissed that Apple is allowed to even patent that. >=.[
The Apple’s unified search patent is roughly about searching both on the web and on your device using only one interface.
Google does it with Google Desktop since October 2004 and the patent was filed in December 2004, but with a parent patent filed in 2000.
The judge said that HTC’s “arc unlock” feature – which also involves a predefined gesture along a path shown on-screen – would have infringed Apple’s technology had it not been for a device released in 2004.
The Neonode N1 showed a padlock on its screen with the words “right sweep to unlock” when it was in its protected mode. A later version replaced the text with an arrow.
The judge said it would have been an “obvious” improvement for the developers to have offered users visual feedback in the form of a “slider” in the way that Apple later used.
He added that the concept of a “slider” was not new since it had already appeared in Microsoft’s CE system.
As a result Apple’s claim to the innovation was rejected.
Wow, common sense judgement used in a patent case. Unheard of in the USA or places like Germany apparently…
Judge Posner disagrees.
Well it seems that Apple’s accounting office forgot to send this judge his bonus check. Therefore this judge ruled according to the law. Whereas the dimwitted judge Lucy Koh got her swag bag from Apple and ruled according to the shiny toys she received. Either that or she is a complete numbnut. In any case she should no longer be able to preside over matters of this nature due to her complete ineptitude and lack of knowledge of the subject matter at hand.
How does colon taste?
She is actually a highly educated judge. Specifically one that has been dealing with IP for a while (prior to becoming a judge). Go read some of her rulings. Insulting a judge for doing her job is honestly plain stupid. Apple’s patents are plain stupid…sadly it is up to the “infringing party” to provide the burden of proof in these cases. Sammy and Google need better lawyers, ones that can actually tell the difference between the Galaxy Tab and an Ipad………
Slide to unlock is a completely assinine patent…As is trying to patent a rectangle, or claiming that a tap is just a swipe with zero length….
By allowing a patent based on unified search using a single UI win? Sorry, but Google’s website has been doing that for 2 decades; Yahoo! is already in existence; and don’t get me started on Ask Jeeves.
That makes SENSE :p
LOL not even valid? Good one Apple. That’s like Kwikset sueing Schlage over the mechanics of a deadbolt.
Apple, these aren’t the droids you wanna F with.
http://youtu.be/9jUjA5eJdpU
You have an iSheep display picture… your opinion is invalid.
So you’re the guy leaving all the negatives. You sure showed us. C’mon guys, lets go buy Apple products because some inane judge has her head on her shoulders.
True it’s not Google v. Steve Jobs, but it’s still funnier than Hell.
http://youtu.be/njos57IJf-0
I don’t even have to click that link to know that it’s the ERBOH. Am I right? LoL!! Let’s see…
*Yay!! I’m right!! LoL!! That was funny though. Wii can assume that Linux is Google since Android is Linux based.
I think I’d rather have Judge Judy handle these cases than Judge Lucy Koh (which is the name of a soap opera character). I can just see Judge Judy yelling at the Apple lawyers saying “Are you kidding me? How stupid do you think I am? Slide your finger to unlock? You really think you can patent that?. Using information on your device? You really think you can patent that?” Finally, she gives Apple the middle finger saying “Patent this! Case dismissed!”
Afterwards, the Apple lawyers go to the U.S Patent office and successfully patent the use of the middle finger.
lol now that is funny
Pay attention Koh!
BOOOYAH!
Finally a Judge who knows something. I never thought that there was a judge who knew something about technology.
How to disable slide to unlock? =)) it’s very disturbing
Next up, Apple will start sueing Custom ROM creators -_- S.O.Bs
tinyurl.com/cozaa3k jgk