> Can you provide an example of slide to unlock before the iPhone?
A mediaeval church door bolt. Or whatever.
Doing the same thing but "on a computer" shouldn't allow a patent.
A mediaeval church door bolt. Or whatever.
Doing the same thing but "on a computer" shouldn't allow a patent.
To the contrary, I think it's quite a clever implementation. If somehow inventions like this did not qualify for patent protection, then very little would. Which is a fine argument if you just hate all patents, but if you actually read and understand the slide-to-unlock patent, as far as software patents go, it's not a bad one.
Some specific claims have been found to have prior art, but the patent as a whole is not invalid. And certainly not because of door bolts.