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German court overturns Apple patent on “slide to unlock”

In 2007, when it launched the first iPhone, Apple introduced the world a new gesture to unlock the smartphone screen: the now famous "Slide to unlock" (“Slide to unlock”). At the time, Steve Jobs joked that the company had patented * a lot * about it.

That gesture was just one of the things that Apple has since tried to patent, but this week, according to Bloomberg, the German justice brought down the company's desire once and for all. According to the evaluation, the gesture is too generic to justify a single company to have rights over it.

In addition, a Swedish company called Neonode would also have created a device with a similar gesture in 2006, that is, before Apple.

The decision could lead to a legal dispute between Apple and Motorola Mobility, which has been going on since 2012. At the time, Motorola was a subsidiary of Google; today, it is managed by Lenovo.

(via AppleInsider)