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HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple

bbc.com

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Re: HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple

#2

Post by mrkmcknz »

It infuriates me when I hear of these 'swipe to unlock' and 'pull to refresh' patents that actually get issued.

Defensive use only when patents as pathetic as these are used is all well and good. Wasn't the patent system created to protect real innovation?

A fucking slide to unlock gesture is not innovation.

Now let me go and patent that 'dance to pay' gesture.

Re: HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple

#3

Post by azakai »

> The judge said that HTC's "arc unlock" feature - which also involves a predefined gesture along a path shown on-screen - would have infringed Apple's technology had it not been for a device released in 2004.

No, no, no. It is clearly obvious, the fact that there happens to also be prior art just adds insult to injury. If there had not been prior art, it would still be a frivolous, trivial patent.

This is exactly what's wrong with the patent system - you don't need prior art to tell you something is obvious and should be unpatentable.

Re: HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple

#6

Post by oraj »

"We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace."

This. I do think that Apple is an innovative company which creates great products. But this does not in anyways justifies its actions in courtrooms all over the world trying to exploit a system that is clearly outdated.

Re: HTC wins swipe to unlock patent dispute against Apple

#9

Post by azylman »

oraj wrote: post #6

"We remain disappointed that Apple continues to favour competition in the courtroom over competition in the marketplace." This. I do think that Apple is an innovative company which creates great products. But this does not in anyways justifies its actions in courtrooms all over the world trying to exploit a system that is clearly outdated.

I struggle to think of Apple as innovative - I consider them iterative. They DO make amazing, fantastic products. With few exceptions, however, their products tend to be things that are iterative improvements over already existing technology.

For example, iPhone and iPad - both of these concepts (smartphone and tablet) already existed. Only, a lot of them were shitty before Apple came along. They basically swept through and fixed everything that was wrong with these devices, but it's not like they came up with the idea for a tablet or a smartphone.

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