back to article Google swings new mobile unlock patent punch at Apple

Here's a potential way out for Google after Apple's recent win on its slide-to-unlock patent in Germany. A patent application for unlocking mobile devices that Google filed in August 2010 was published earlier this month – which means it will now form full prior art for other patent applications worldwide. The paperwork details …

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  1. unbound

    Patents...

    Time for the rule that patents cannot be granted for designs that are obvious be actually enforced. How is either the Google patent or the Apple "slide to unlock" anything other than obvious?

    This nonsense has gone on long enough. Stop feeding the lawyers, and start encouraging competition by getting rid of these ridiculous patents.

    1. Giles Jones Gold badge

      Re: Patents...

      It's obvious now, just like anything you have gotten used to is obvious.The mouse seems obvious, touch screens and multitouch seems obvious.

      I suggest you go back to 2006 and look at touch screen user interfaces prior to the iPhone. I would also look at the original Android prototypes, they're nothing like how Android phones were when released. This suggests Google looked to see how popular the iPhone would be before being "inspired" by their UI.

      An example of early Android:

      http://gizmodo.com/334909/google-android-prototype-in-the-wild

      1. Monkey Bob

        Re: Re: Patents...

        There was a phone released in early 2005 which had an on-screen "slide to unlock" feature. Apple filed the patent in December 2005. Can't remember the manufacturer, some Scandinavian company (not the obvious two).

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Re: Re: Patents...

          You may be thinking of the Neonode N2 which had slide to unlock, in fact it had a number of gesture driven UI features - I believe the even older N1 had slide to unlock as well

      2. Peter 48
        FAIL

        Re: Re: Patents...

        touch screen interfaces prior to 2006? what, like palm OS 5 which dates back to 2002 and consists of a grid of icons, very much like iOS?

        oh, how revolutionary, how magical, how new.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Re: Re: Patents...

          Hmmm. Would that be the PDA interface that Palm squarely ripped off from Apple's Newton? Computers, PDAs and other electronic devices existed before 2002 bucko. You'd do well to remember that.

      3. tgm
        FAIL

        Re: Re: Patents...

        Hmm, anyone every unlocked a gate or garage door with a bolt? It's like you slide it sideways, and...it unlocks.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Re: Re: Patents...

          So it's official? You can patent a metaphor now. Not unlike them to extend that to litotes...

      4. P Zero
        Stop

        Re: Re: Patents...

        That looks exactly like a regular home screen with a launcher and no buttons or widgets on the screen. Remove the Senses and Touchwizs and replace them with a pared down launcher, clear the screen of widgets and icons and that is exactly what Android still looks like...

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yes, lets spend all our R&D budget on making sure that no phone will ever be able to have a full feature set that customers would want.

    This is just a lose-lose situation. And its everyone's fault.

    1. N13L5
      Coffee/keyboard

      its like patenting ways to remove a cap from a bottle

      a so-called invention should not receive a patent if its completely obvious...

      Airplane Toilet doors had slide to unlock first?

      Or was it suitcases?

      If you just emulate existing real world features in software, you should receive a warm handshake for being able to recognize the obvious, and then be sent home by your friendly patent officer who'se eyes didn't actually glaze over while he was looking at your patent application.

      Patent officers granting software patents should be required to have a minimum of 2 years programming experience, so they can at least recognize humorous applications for what they are: a corporate patent lawyer on a fishing trip...

  3. Ebeneser
    Stop

    Slide to unlock prior art?

    It's called a bolt.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Prior-ish art

    My HTC Sensation XE does this, pretty sure the original Sensation does too

    1. Rameses Niblick the Third (KKWWMT)
      Thumb Up

      Re: Prior-ish art

      My Desire HD does it too, all of which are Android devices. it would be a shocking move to say the least if Google decided to start suing the people who make phones using its operating system for using the features of its operating system.

      Anyway, from using this on the Desire HD, I have to say it is a very useful system which I now wouldn't be without

  5. Tom Kelsall
    WTF?

    It's already there...

    HTC's Sense 3.0 interface already uses the "Drag an icon into a portion of the screen to unlock". You can drag the ring upwards for a full unlock, or you can drag an app icon into the ring to activate that icon immediately.

    Not sure if Google are collaborating with HTC on this but HTC clearly "had it first".

    I agree with earlier posters that wasting money on patenting Human Computer Interaction is ridiculous. The same problems will generate the same solutions when there are a limited number of ways to interact.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: It's already there...

      Did you have HTC Sense 3.0 and this functionality on or before August 6, 2010, cause that's when Google filed for it.

      Ignoring my pedantic post I think Google and HTC will play nicely together regardless of who owns the patent on this feature.

    2. Neil Alexander

      Re: It's already there...

      This is defensive strategy on Google's part. They are trying to reduce the number of things that Apple can go after HTC with, who of course, produce a significant portion of Android devices.

      Unfortunately this seems to be the only thing companies can do these days to protect their creations.

  6. Sir Barry

    I should have chosen a career as a patent lawyer, I'd be a bloody millionaire by now.

    This is really getting out of hand and is patently stupid.

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Joke

      http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2000-05-30/

      1. Gordon 10

        Rule 34.6 - there's a Dilbert for it.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Unhappy

      Patent lawyers

      I know a couple of patent lawyers, and they are absolutely minted.

      They're boring c*nts, but they're minted boring c*nts.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stroke of luck for Google?

    Your hacks really do favour Apple, even when Apple won't give El Reg the time of day!

    Tisk!

    Brown nose!

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      R U SERIUS?

      1. Craigness

        Serious?

        Considering Android now has 3 ways of unlocking a phone without sliding an icon along a predefined path (the Apple patent), I'd say it's relevant to ask why El Reg considers this patent a "stroke of luck" for Google.

        Unlock methods:

        1) Face recognition

        2) The one in this patent

        3) Earlier android phones used something which was unlike Apple's method but was covered by their broad patent. The solution was that, instead of an icon sliding, the whole screen was made to slide - in any direction. Slide it far enough and the phone would unlock, sending Apple's lawyers scurrying back under their rock.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @Craigness

          The whole purpose of a lock screen is to LOCK the fucking screen.

          If I can just unlock it by sliding anywhere on the screen it would completely and utterly ruin that main purpose, just reaching into my pocket (or handbag for those who use it) would unlock it.

          PLEASE don't give up your day job - as a Google cheerleader - and leave UX design to those who know how to do it properly, ummm,?

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this affected by the new first to file rules?

    Isn't the slide-to-unlock patent just a subset of this Google patent where the desired action is show-the-home-screen?

    I've never understood why the patent office accepts patenting of a virtual version of something from the real world such as a slide bolt.

    1. jai

      how does the first to file thing work?

      Apple's patent was filed in 2006...

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge

        Jai - no it bloody wasn't. Application D/282,837: July 30th 2007

        Exactly one month after the iPhone 1 was released.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Jai - no it bloody wasn't. Application D/282,837: July 30th 2007

          Never put facts in front of a fanboi - it just upsets them.

  9. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Any possibilities the final clash between Google and Apple ends with their mutual annihilation?

    <--- One can only hope...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      No. It's all actually a well rehearsed dance. The fanboi battles keep the media busy and put Google and Apple's name in the papers almost EVERY SINGLE DAY. It's like there's not even computing outside of Google and Apple.

      Now guess who doesn't get their name in the papers... Yes the once mighty Redmond company.

      No mind share = no market share.

      No one is actually annihilating anybody. If you look closely you'll see they never actually step on each other's feet.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @A. Coatsworth - Surely not!

      That would leave us with Microsoft as the only solution. (Shudder!) I'd rather have them both fighting than suffer at the hands of Microsoft.

      1. Peter 48

        Re: @A. Coatsworth - Surely not!

        Compared to Apple MS are positively saints, and that takes a lot! Apple have turned into the Darth Vader of IT, just with more Lawyers than Storm Troopers.

        1. Tom 38

          Re: Re: @A. Coatsworth - Surely not!

          I find your lack of faith disturbing.

        2. A. Coatsworth Silver badge
          Unhappy

          @ Peter 48

          That's exactly what I say... Right now MS is by far the least terrible option (which, in itself is a VERY surreal situation) Apple and Google are in my opinion equally disgusting, although for very different reasons...

          I had such high hopes in WebOS when HP bought it... just to have them crushed a year later

        3. Steven Roper

          Microsoft

          may be saints for now but they'll be shedding their halos to join the evil Apple empire with the release of Windows 8 - which has all the invasive remote control and walled garden of iOS. In the coming years, if you want your computer to actually be yours, and not subject to remote control by megalomaniac corporations, your only choice will be Linux - if there's anything left of it after Microsoft black-ban any motherboard manufacturer that puts unlockable UEFI on their boards.

          The future of IT looks very bleak, and it all started with Apple and that fucking megalomaniac despot Jobs, may his soul rot in hell for all eternity.

  10. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Devil

    Nokia

    Weren't Nokia first with the beta of Bubbles which, alas, never made it to be a finished product?

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The only unlocking I'll be doing with Google is quitting Gmail and moving to Zoho.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    next related patents from google

    PATENT 67271932 "POST DEVICE UNLOCKS TO WEB SERVICE"

    A method of increasing participation in boring and deserted social networks

    PATENT 67271942 "WATCH TARGETED ADVERTISEMENT TO UNLOCK"

    Method to increase our advertising rates in an interesting and fun way. The latter claim confirmed on guinea pigs.

    1. whitespacephil

      Re: next related patents from google

      I liked this post anyway (and upvoted it) as it made me smile. The Guinea Pigs bit. And then noticed I'd voted for a backwards Barry Shitpeas.

      Had to explain to the current Mrs whitespacephil who Barry Shitpeas was after laughing about the last person who needed to self-flagellate after liking/agreeing with the real Mr Barry Shitpeas.

      Enjoy Friday...

  13. Red_Five

    Prior Art

    The phone people are referring to, as prior art in reference to Apple's patent, is the Neonode N1m.

    Watch this video, and see what the person does at at around 4:05.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tj-KS2kfIr0

  14. cybersaur
    Stop

    Software patents

    Software patents should be eliminated entirely. A patent on "slide to unlock" is absurd. We've been "sliding to unlock" things for centuries. That is is done with software now is in no way new and unique. All these patent wars do is raise the prices for consumers.

    1. Marky
      IT Angle

      Re: Software patents

      Agreed - we've been using sliding bolts to lock/unlock for centuries. The distinction as to whether it is software controlled to do the same thing should not give rise to a new patent. And as for Voice control - anyone remember Ali Baba opening his cave door?

      All prior art imho.

      1. Richard 12 Silver badge
        Mushroom

        I'm happy with that

        "Using Voice Control to Unlock" is obvious and should have no protection whatsoever.

        A specific method of listening to and parsing the voice command is a different matter.

        Equally, a specific method of determining how a finger has touched the device (capacitive screen) could be a new thing.

        Saying "The user touches the screen and slides along" is so obvious that not only was it being done before Apple filed, almost every touchscreen phone since the Neonode N1m has done it - iPhone, all HTC WinMobiles, etc.

        If the US Patent Office doesn't switch from "approve everything, let the courts decide" to "examine everything like we're supposed to" soon, then there really is going to be an implosion.

  15. Chet Mannly

    Am I the only one

    who hates lock screens then?

    NoLock was the first app installed on both my Androids (and after major OS updates).

    Keylocks I can understand, easy to bump the 'send' key but not capacitive screens

    1. Richard 12 Silver badge

      Re: Am I the only one

      It's easy to poke a touchscreen while getting it out of your pocket.

  16. DanceMan
    WTF?

    Human Progress

    And to think we laugh at our ancestors arguing over how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.

  17. Keep Refrigerated
    Mushroom

    Verb to unlock

    To me the answer is more than obvious and requires only a verb change. 'Slide' is generally recognised as a horizontal action, therefore Google should have simply created a vertical GUI element and called it 'scroll to unlock'.

    In general though, whilst manipulating pixels that form a GUI on a touch screen can be regarded as mechanical and worthy of a patent for the hardware itself, I still can't grasp how a judge can view such obvious GUI elements as patentable in themselves. It's comparable to someone claiming copyright not on a picture, but on how you hang the picture on the wall and along with the configuration of your other wall hangings.

    What's next? Slide to move a homescreen icon? Slide to move a bird back from a nested position to a preparatory, variable slinging position? Hang on a sec, I might just patent that myself; watch out Rovio, prior art isn't something that German courts bother themselves with!

  18. D. M
    Coat

    Only if I can paten stupidity

    I'd solve most of the world's problem.

    1. stanimir

      Re: Only if I can paten stupidity

      the infringement won't stop, you may just have a chance to become filthy rich, including suing the bureau that granted the patent.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Let's see what apple's layers had to say about UI

    Back when Microsoft was taking them to court for making a GUI. Naaa, that might be embarasing, considering Apple won that one.

  20. blackadder1000

    I don't think this Google 'patent' has been granted. From the USPTO it looks like it has only been published, with a long way to go until grant.

    Also, it appears to have only been filed in the US. How is that going to help manufacturers selling products in Germany? I guess they claim priority from it but then they've got years to go until it would be granted in Europe.

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