Apple Awarded Design Patent For Slide-to-Unlock UI

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delazaren

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I wonder who has a patent for entering a word that gives you access to a system.
I also wonder who has a patent of having text appearing on a screen when keys are pressed on a keyboard.
I also wonder....
 

holdingholder

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2 things that damn near every freaking smartphone/tablet has already and is pretty much a basic feature that requires no ingenuity. What an absolute joke.
 

twelch82

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Rounded corners is a safety/comfort feature moreso than a design feature. No rough edges to poke yourself with.

...More fuel for Apple to continue their patent war with.
 

bisso

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This is insane! Will anyone be able stop that US patent office once and for all? If this is what people do with patents these days, better just close the office now. Also, the slide to unlock have been around as a physical button years before iPod or Iphone were even on paper.
 
G

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Anyone ever feel like Apple is your rich friend whose parents give them everything they want because they are a spoiled brat? We all have this friend and we all hate them we can only one day hope they get hit by a bus.
 

Chairman Ray

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Apple isn't the only company with silly patents like these. Microsoft and Google both hold a large number of similar patents as well, and I'm sure we'll find the same with Samsung and every other large tech company. The only difference is that Apple took advantage of the situation and decided to sue. If all tech companies behaved this way, our phones would all have like one or two features max. Hopefully Apple uses their newly awarded design patents for innovation rather than greed.
 

thechaver

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Apples pockets are deep. But I will tell you this, people are starting to catch on to there bullshit and are refusing to buy their products. These patents are just apple getting desperate. I for one have completely taken myself out of their phone and tablet market. I will only buy their all in one's and MacBooks. For now
 

internetlad

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"Methodology for holding distributed product inside folded casing"

There, I just patented gum wrappers. Where's my money, Wrigleys?
 

thechaver

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Yeah, but their not coming out with something newer and original after someone copies them. They're just trying to hold on to the same design, which is why the last 3 Iphones have been basically the same phone, except for it's innards and an extending of the phone, which is technically copying Samsung because they came out with the large screen first. Lol.
 

rhangman

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[citation][nom]sacre[/nom]To be fair, they did introduce it. I don't see anything wrong with this.[/citation]
To be fair, they didn't come up with the concept, they just updated it so that the graphics follow your finger.

Still, doesn't really matter since all a competitor needs to do is have their slide to unlock feature work left-to-right as well as right-to-left or similar and they wouldn't be infringing on this.
 

spectrewind

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[citation][nom]sacre[/nom]To be fair, they did introduce it. I don't see anything wrong with this.[/citation]

They surely didn't... I can recall visiting some technically entertaining Macromedia Flash sites from around 10 years ago, when Flash 4 & 5 were king. Sites with interesting intro/time wasters and cheesy event driven slide-to-open bars like this that developers would stitch into a site to allow a user to navigate it. That's just an example.
Prior art alone should invalidate this patent.
 

house70

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[citation][nom]halcyon[/nom]Ridiculous. No hate but this just seems ridiculous.[/citation]
It only seems ridiculous because it is.
We are at the sad step in tech evolution where stupid patents and trademarks are awarded by morons that have no understanding whatsoever of the consequences. To them, it does not matter that by awarding these patents they are in fact impeding competition and hampering progress. Broad/generic patents should never be allowed, because resources are being spent in order to find avenues to avoid infringement instead of being spent to advance real technology. Not to mention the waste on legal battles. This is similar to patenting the circular shape of a wheel by a single car company, leaving all the rest scratching their heads to find ways around that.
My faith in mankind just went south a little.
 
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