This always struck me as an "On the computer" patent. The slide to unlock mechanism has been around since forever (think any bathroom stall or old wood screen door, etc). Just because it's on a computer screen shouldn't make it patentable.
In real life, slide to unlock pushes a bar in place to prevent the door from swinging open. You slide to unlock, so the bar is moved away from blocking the door.
"On the computer", it's making sure that you deliberately intended to use the device and it's not an accidental "pocket dialed" motion.
These are similar motions addressing different problems. In the physical world, you slide the bar into place to allow the bar to work for you. On the computer, you slide to express a deliberate intention.
Anyway, deserving of a patent or not, these seem like different mechanisms.
Just like the iphone.
If it was 'just like' the iPhone, you wouldn't have to explain the physical mechanism.
It is just like the iPhone. The patent is as absurd as would be 'rotate the door handle to enable the door to open (on a computer)' or 'toggle the light switch from the bottom position to the top position to turn on the lights (on a computer)' or 'slide the slider one way to increase the volume, and the other way to decrease the volume (on a computer)' or 'push the brake pedal to apply the braking mechanism (on a computer)'... etc^3
I was emphasizing how it is just like the iphone. The iphone lockscreen is "springloaded" too. It pops right back when you let go of it.
But more importantly, "slide to unlock" is essentially "swipe to unlock". The swipe zone is confined to a specific area, but it's still swiping. "Flicking" also works. Apple are trying to patent "swiping", which is ridiculous.
Just like "double click to unlock" would be equally absurd as a patent for unlocking a desktop PC. Changing the name to "double press to unlock" doesn't suddenly make it unique.
That's an incredibly bad example. Besides sharing the same word (in English), there's almost zero similarity.
"Are computer mice and the kind that squeak different enough?"
Xeyes is not rectangular, Portholes are round. The window on my boiler permits views inside the boiler etc. etc.
On a desk cluttered with papers, you can see bits of some papers and others papers are hidden by other papers that are on top.
There is no way you should be able to patent such an obvious real world, real life experience, just because you were the first to take that real world experience and replicate it on a computer screen.
All you have done is modeled a real work experience.
Frames, boxes, panels, or "windows". A child could come up with the need for a digital version of a container if none existed. The name that catches on to describe that container is irrelevant.
In the digital world we need to be sensible about what would inevitably exist given the hardware allowance for such an obvious software feature. Slide to unlock is child's play.
Those are all examples of authentication. Not at all the purpose of the slide-to-open.
The earlier dumb-phones used to have a key-lock functionality where you would have to press a certain combination of keys in quick succession. Or just open a physical lid.
Using physical analogs has LONG been common.
The other day I used ProComm (yeah, I know, right!?). To close the connection, I clicked the phone icon and it animated showing the phone being placed back on the hook.
That being said, if you had to use a newly invented screw or slide to get that chicken coop mod to work, then that probably should be patentable. Similarly, on a phone, if you invented a new means of translating that motion into a slide, or other actual invention, than that probably should be valid. Using existing touch drivers to recognize an obvious real world motion, probably not.
I say this as someone who has worked as a patent examiner and understand the law (not the US law exactly, but they're quite similar world wide).
The first time I saw it was on the Neonode phone, several years prior to Apple's patent. They were Windows CE based if I remembers correctly, and very proud of their UI. You can probably still find movies on Youtube.
You slide to unlock to open a door. You slide to unlock to open your phone (or rather the "door" blocking you from accessing the content in the phone). Seems quite similar to me.