Samsung's Never-Ending Battle With Apple Over 'Slide to Unlock' May be Headed to Supreme Court

[Naraxus]

T

If that were true this case would have been long thrown out. There is a reason they won.

There's a reason why most of those lawsuits have been thrown out everywhere and damages significantly reduced if not eliminated.

 

[apolloa]

If that were true this case would have been long thrown out. There is a reason they won.

After a quick Google here you go, pretty much the only country where Apples slide to unlock patent is still valid is America, now fancy that...

http://ipkitten.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/apples-european-slide-to-unlock-patent.html

It seems in every other country Apple brought cases against Samsung it was made invalid due to prior art, including its appeals as in Germany.

So is America right and the rest of the planet wrong? Doubt it, with any luck the Supreme Court will invalidate the patent too as Apple should never have been given it.

It was a great feature, classy and sexy, but it's an insult for Apple to get a patent for something they never invented in its home country and then attempt to sue all it's competition around the world with said patent!

 

[andorksmakemela]

Good!!!! Then they can see how Apple BLATANTLY stole the idea from Neonode that had it years before Apple and we can all move on. I thought this patent was going to be made void from Apple because of the Neonode prior art?

Watch from 4 minutes:

And this phone was out about 2 YEARS before the first iPhone.. yet Apple kept banging on about their patent.

actually the patent is different enough that it was granted a separate patent, do some homework and learn about patents before claiming bs.

 

[macTW]

Oh Samsung. Refusing to pay what they lawfully owe, in every court case of infringing patents.

 

[apolloa]

actually the patent is different enough that it was granted a separate patent, do some homework and learn about patents before claiming bs.

Just like you should considering courts in Europe threw Apples case out due to the Neonode phone prior art!

Here's a report on how the federal court has invalidated the patent:

http://patentlyo.com/patent/2016/02/federal-circuit-unlock-invalid.html

 

[Lone Deranger]

These two behemoths should be taken to court over taking the piss in court.

 

[Mactendo]

The new UI makes me press the home button twice as often. Steve's buddy Craig Federighi may have been a similar ** as Steve but his UI did rock.

Do you mean Scott Forstall?

 

[myrtlebee]

The Supreme Court will not take this case. Dream on.

 

[Carnegie]

To be clear, regarding the so-called slide-to-unlock patent (US8046721)...

Samsung doesn't even argue (at least not at the Federal Circuit level) that the patent (or Claim 8 from it) is invalid for failing to meet the novelty prong of the patentability test. In other words, it isn't really disputed that Apple (or rather, the inventors listed on the patent which was assigned to Apple) was the first to describe that functionality as it was implemented on early iPhones. Apple didn't just copy that feature as some have suggested, it created something new.

The validity of the patent was challenged based on the nonobviousness prong of the test. Even when it comes to that aspect of the consideration, Samsung didn't challenge the patent based only on the Neonode prior art. Rather, Samsung argued that the Neonode prior art combined with another piece of prior art (i.e. the Plaisant prior art, which didn't relate to mobile devices nor to an unlocking function) makes the patent invalid. Samsung's argument is, in essence, that it would have been obvious to someone of ordinary skill in the industry to combine certain elements of the Neonode prior art with certain elements of the Plaisant prior art in an implementation consistent with Apple's patent (or Claim 8 from it).

 

[5105973]

Good!!!! Then they can see how Apple BLATANTLY stole the idea from Neonode that had it years before Apple and we can all move on. I thought this patent was going to be made void from Apple because of the Neonode prior art?

Watch from 4 minutes:

And this phone was out about 2 YEARS before the first iPhone.. yet Apple kept banging on about their patent.

Whoa, that's a phone? It looks like the key fob to my truck! That is so cool. I want one now! I do remember when it was considered cool to pack as many features into the smallest chassis possible. I kind of miss those days. Ergonomic nightmare yes, but it was cool.

 

[dwaltwhit]

Apple doesn't even use this anymore. Why are they still fighting over it?

The loser generally pays the winner's court costs

 

[farewelwilliams]

We've been on iOS 10 awhile now. The new method of unlocking a device takes me longer, on average, than slide to unlock did. Granted we're still talking very small amounts of time either way, but I hate the new method no matter how minuscule that added delay is because I know there is another way that was both easier and faster.

huh? are you still using touch id 1? that might be why. touch id 2 is instant.
only other thing i can think of is that you might have triple tap enabled for some accessibility shortcut enabled. this will add a delay to your unlock.

 

[BvizioN]

I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.

It is waste of time now. It was OK then but now that touch ID is so good, all I do is press and unlock. Bang! No fiddling around with slides. I think Apple made the right move.

And yes, I know how much pain changes are for some people. Extremely painful.

 

[Thunderhawks]

I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.

For me it's the other way around: Got used to my 6S just opening upon lifting it up and reading my touch id. Sometimes annoyingly it wants the passcode entered.

Started fixing my old 4S to use as an iPod by inserting a new battery and a new digitizer (Delaminating top digitizer due to dropping it into a vat of alcohol by accident).

Most beautiful iPhone design in my eyes, but: man is that screen small!
Could never go back with my aging eyes from a 6 Plus.

Upon rebooting the 4S, I kept putting my thumb onto the home button until I realized slide to unlock is it.

How fast we forget

Samsung can pay whatever damages out of the petty cash and account for it via the new Apple orders for chips, SSDs etc.etc.

 

[madgick]

I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.

I'm seeing a lot of comments like this about the hate for the Touch ID and then pressing the button. Everyone needs to read this article!! There is a setting to make it behave like iOS9 where clicking the home button once unlocked the phone

I HATED that extra click introduced from iOS10. Googled it and changed it after about 5 minutes

 

[mi7chy]

Apple has no legal leg to stand on when its slide-to-unlock patent which was stolen from Neonode was invalidated by the rest of the world then finally with USPTO. That's the reason why it was removed from iOS 10.

http://www.neonode.com/apples-slide-to-unlock-patent-invalidated-by-top-german-court/

 

[stevemiller]

Same here. Half the time, I invoke Apple Pay instead, or, if I want to look at my notifications screen, I wind up unlocking it because I left my finger on too long or too hard or whatever.

It's gotten so convoluted!

I can press the home button for Siri from the lock screen and it unlocks to the home screen, or triggers Apple Pay. Or I have rest to unlock on and it won't register and tell me to press to unlock anyway, and then it'll trigger Siri or Apple Pay. Or I'll try to Apple Pay and it'll invoke Siri or just unlock. If that sounds like a word salad, it's because the usability has gotten that messy.

Also I miss invoking Siri with a long press that triggered an audio cue when to speak. Now it only makes the audio feedback at the end. So sometimes I'll speak and it won't pick anything up, or I'll wait a fraction of a second too long and it'll complain that I'm not saying anything.

It's all so frustrating. If Samsung still copies the old usable Apple, I applaud them at this point.

 

[TechViking]

Apple has no legal leg to stand on when its slide-to-unlock patent which was stolen from Neonode was invalidated by the rest of the world then finally with USPTO. That's the reason why it was removed from iOS 10.

http://www.neonode.com/apples-slide-to-unlock-patent-invalidated-by-top-german-court/

Yes, that is actually a very likely reason for slide-to-unlock being dropped from iOS 10.

It is interesting that Neonode now is making it possible to touch, slide, pinch, zoom etc on Apples laptops:

And video of the PC version with more usage details:

I wonder if the AirBar device perhaps will be sold by Apple in their stores? If they start to cooperate like that, I think Apple should just buy the patent from Neonode and it would then seem that Samsung would no longer have any case against Apple for the slide-to-unlock issue.

 

[Carnegie]

Yes, that is actually a very likely reason for slide-to-unlock being dropped from iOS 10.

It is interesting that Neonode now is making it possible to touch, slide, pinch, zoom etc on Apples laptops:

And video of the PC version with more usage details:

I wonder if the AirBar device perhaps will be sold by Apple in their stores? If they start to cooperate like that, I think Apple should just buy the patent from Neonode and it would then seem that Samsung would no longer have any case against Apple for the slide-to-unlock issue.

No one (that's a party to the case) is arguing that Neonode has a patent that covers the slide-to-unlock functionality as Apple and then Samsung implemented it. I don't think there'd be anything for Apple to buy that would accomplish what you suggest.

Prior art doesn't necessarily (and often doesn't) mean another patent. And no one is even arguing that the Neonode prior art in question (which isn't a patent) discloses every element of Apple's patent claim.

If the Federal Circuit were to be reversed with regard to the nonobviousness of Apple's supposed invention, that would just mean Samsung (and others) could use that functionality. It wouldn't mean that Apple couldn't use it and Apple wouldn't have needed to remove the slide-to-unlock functionality from iOS 10 because the patent claim in question might ultimately be found to be invalid.

 

[Fiachers]

I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.

I don't know what you're talking about. At least on my iPhone 6, it's just one home button press and I'm unlocked to my home screen in a second.

 

[dannyyankou]

I really miss slide-to-unlock. I still have to actively think about pressing the button after doing the Touch ID, while slide-to-unlock seemed completely intuitive.

I think it's more intuitive to just rest your finger on the home button than to slide and enter a passcode, but that's just me.

 

[Asarien]

Yes... These are the pressing issues of our times.

 

[kas23]

Thermonuclear………..

This is exactly what this is still about. The guy is cold and long dead. Let's move on.
[doublepost=1487990555][/doublepost]

If that were true this case would have been long thrown out. There is a reason they won.

In some European courts, this is exactly what has happened. It had been thrown out. Should tell you something about our love for litigation.

Here's some literature. Slide to unlock was nothing new. It's the court system that is broken here.

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...sung-ii-strips-away-apples-120m-jury-verdict/

Here's the European courts throwing this out:

http://www.fosspatents.com/2014/04/10-european-judges-found-apple-had-not.html?m=1

 

[69Mustang]

Yes... These are the pressing issues of our times.

You may be lost. You're on a tech forum dedicated to Apple products. Nothing here is really pressing.

 

[JosephAW]

iOS 8 was better than iOS 10.
When I have a notification on the screen I have to remember if the phone is locked or not.
If not then you tap it, for if you slide it goes to widgets.
If locked and slide it goes right to app. Screwy.