In the United States is a more comprehensive version of Apple’s ‘slide to unlock’patent approved. That patent was recently rejected in a Dutch court case. Apple has the custom patent in 2009, submitted.
Many media reported Wednesday that Apple has a new patent has been obtained on the unlock of a touch screen device, the screen slides, but it is in fact a modification of one already in February 2010 granted patent, which in 2005 was submitted. That last patent was treated in a trial of Apple against Samsung in the Netherlands. In that lawsuit was, among others, the Samsung Galaxy S II forbidden, because the photo gallery software resemblance with that of Apple, but the slide to unlock patent was rejected.
The amended version of the patent is not, however, as a result of that lawsuit was filed; the amended version was in June 2009, submitted more than six months before the original patent was approved. Yet, the new, amended version of the patent, however, have consequences. The court found the old patent is “not inventive” enough to Samsung is guilty to consider patent infringement, but with a new patent would be the judge to a different conclusion.
The custom patent seems wider field than the old one and describes more precisely what the patent means. So speaks the original patent is still on the ‘control of an electronic device with a touch screen when it is in locked condition, while the new patent is about ‘unlocking a hand-held device with touchscreen” in the same state.
At other points there are differences. Where the unlocking according to the old patent shall be made by following a displayed path along a channel, is that in the new patent a ‘movement in which any path can be followed. That last is relevant, because the patent no longer speaks about the unlock of a touch screen in one direction, such as with Apple devices be the case, but in any desired direction. That happens in Android versions since Honeycomb, where a device can be unlocked by the unlock symbol far enough in any direction to drag.
The Dutch court was right in treating the patent of slide to unlock in one direction, so it is possible that the court may in unlock by to slides in any direction a different opinion. Whether that is true, it can not be predicted.
Originally patent
Custom patent
A method of controlling an electronic device with a touch-sensitive display, comprising: detecting contact with the touch-sensitive display while the device is in a user-interface lock state; moving an unlock image along a predefined displayed path on the touch-sensitive display in accordance with the contact, wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; transitioning the device to a user-interface unlock state if the detected contact corresponds to a predefined gesture; and maintaining the device in the user-interface lock state if the detected contact does not correspond to the predefined gesture.
A method of unlocking a hand-held electronic device, the device including a touch-sensitive display, the method comprising: detecting a contact with the touch-sensitive display at a first predefined location corresponding to an unlock image; continuously moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display in accordance with movement of the contact while continuous contact with the touch screen is maintained, wherein the unlock image is a graphical, interactive user-interface object with which a user interacts in order to unlock the device; and unlocking the hand-held electronic device if the moving the unlock image on the touch-sensitive display results in movement of the unlock image from the first predefined location to a predefined unlock region on the touch-sensitive display.
Differences between old and new patent.