HTC has won an important case against Apple in UK. The court ruled that HTC did not infringe four Apple patents including the infamous 'slide to unlock'.
Four Apple claims that the court threw out of window include:
- Unlocking a device by performing gestures on an unlock image
- Portable radio communication apparatus using different alphabets
- Portable electronic device for photo management (related to multi and single touch gestures)
- Portable electronic device for photo management (involves the animation when you stretch the image and it bounces back)
As BBC reported, the judge said that Apple's slide-to-unlock feature was an "obvious" development in the light of a similar function on an earlier Swedish handset. This 'sensible' judgment sets a precedent for Android players to fight Apple's legal attacks as the company loses market share. There were many instances of 'prior' art regarding the 'slide to unlock which appeared in devices like Neonode N1 which could be unlocked by sweeping the the padlock on its.
Responding to the court decision Apple regurgitated the same old statement, "We think competition is healthy, but competitors should create their own original technology, not steal ours."
It won't be a hard job for an Android user to point Apple PR team at the technologies and features Apple store from Android and implemented in their iOS.
Source:
Swapnil Bhartiya
A free software fund-a-mental-ist and Charles Bukowski fan, Swapnil also writes fiction and tries to find cracks in a proprietary company's 'paper armours'. He is a big movie buff and prefers listening to music at such high volumes that he's gone partially deaf when it comes to identifying anything positive about proprietary companies. You can follow him on Twitter, Google+ & Facebook. You can write to him on editor at muktware dot com
