Apple Wins Patent for 'Slide to Unlock'

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Posted October 25, 2011 at 9:40pm by iClarified

Today the United States Patent & Trademark Office granted Apple a patent on iOS 'Slide to Unlock' action, reports 9to5Mac.

Apple says in some embodiments of the patent "a method of controlling a device with a touch-sensitive display includes: displaying an image on the touch-sensitive display while the device is in a user-interface lock state; detecting contact with the touch-sensitive display; transitioning the device to a user-interface unlock state if the detected contact corresponds to moving the image to a predefined location on the touch-sensitive display; and maintaining the device in the user-interface lock state if the detected contact does not correspond to moving the image to the predefined location. "

Apple filed the patent application on December 23, 2005.

Read More [via 9to5Mac]

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Comments (14)

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Rav - October 27, 2011 at 1:48pm

Umm hello! Apple won the patent! I Have to stop reading the comment section becuase i dont know where some people come Up with their responses.. What u are say here would have been argued to death by multinational, multimillion dollar corporations! And after all is said and done apple won the right to patent so it's a moot point

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Andre Rypl - October 26, 2011 at 5:32pm

In a word: RIDICULOUS

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Adcpolo - October 26, 2011 at 12:43am

Nobody asked what you like!

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Adcpolo - October 26, 2011 at 12:42am

Can I patent the wheel?!

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Habha - October 25, 2011 at 10:58pm

I imagine around 80% of the mobile phone industry has just soiled its pants?

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therabbit - October 25, 2011 at 10:21pm

It's a joke what get's patented these days. I don't even see how this is innovation, some things are just practical, the way it is and you should not be able to patent it.

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Khan - October 25, 2011 at 10:35pm

Slide to unlock was never implemented before the iPhone so yes this is a solid patent in my opinion. Just because something is easy and simple doesn't mean that someone didn't seat there and thought about for hours on end. If it was as simple as you say it is, someone would have thought of it and implement it in their device. Innovation can come in many form whether simple not. The beautiful of a patent is that it gives credit to the people Who thought of it and did something about it.

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shawn - October 26, 2011 at 12:47am

Yes. Its an invention. Apple put loads of man hours to think these things up. If another company had the same idea before Apple, they would have patented it. The only difference it that Apple don't want to license out its inventions since that is what makes them so great. Microsoft would license it directly since they want money. The Steve Jobs book is great. Its not about money for Apple. Its about making great products that generate money so you can do more great product. That a huge different approach form most other companies that are after max profit, short time to get highest bonuses for the companies bosses. Steve ha 0 dollar in salary 1997. He later tock 50 cent and 50 cent bonus. Apple granted Steve 7.5 million shares worth 4 billion. Steve declined. That is the difference between Apple and other companies. That is why Apple innovate and gets these patents.

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GearJammer - October 26, 2011 at 2:59am

@Rooboy, sure their may be anarchy but someone didn't sit down and spend millions of dollars to think of and design simple things like slide to unlock, it's a simple (and innovative) concept and any programmer would knock it out in a day or so of coding. This is where the current patent system DOES fall down. i would imagine it took more thinking and time to invent the wheel, luckily Apple wasn't around back then to invent it otherwise we would have virtually NO innovation in cars as the sole producer of the wheel wouldn't need to be competitive!! I guess Apple fans don't see obvious logic though...

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GearJammer - October 26, 2011 at 5:04am

@Rooboy, I am a programmer and I can tell you right now it doesn't take long to produce code to do what slide to unlock does. Have a look at some of the apps that sell for .99c on iTunes (or are free), you will find far more complex processes in some of those apps than a simple slide to unlock. Check out this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0 if you want to see pre iPhone slide to unlock in action. I'd be interested in your thoughts on the IOS5 Notification Centre, which appeared on Android first? PS - I am involved in iPhone app dev and soon iPad. However, I am not stupid enough (or an Apple fanboi) to want to stifle competition in the same way you appear to.

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Khan - October 26, 2011 at 5:23am

It's about the idea that came to be. Slide to unlock was someone's idea. Yes it doesn't take up that many lines of code to be programmed but the fact remains that no one else thought of it. Don't get me wrong here. I think android's pattern unlock idea is great. I actually wish it was on iPhone as well, but again someone thought of a clever way to unlock the phone while at the same having providing security. Now this is something that is just as simple as the idea of slide to unlock. Google just beat everyone else to it. Should not google protect this idea as well or should everyone and their mother just leech on the idea.?

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GearJAmmer - October 26, 2011 at 8:54am

@BigDaddy, Google "Neonode N1m". Watch the youtube video review at about 5:38. This phone was released well before the iPhone.

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Me2010 - October 25, 2011 at 10:07pm

Bring on the lawsuits!

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@chan - October 26, 2011 at 5:51am

I own an Ipad and an Iphone as well, But I wouldnt go as far to say that android is a piece of crap, both phones offer a individual what they want, so if someone likes open source, they buy a droid and if someone likes a more secured feeling they buy an Iphone. No hate to you, im just saying no need to smash droid. Both have their short-comings and advantages.

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