“Apple’s recent success in patenting the ‘Slide to Unlock’ gesture used on its iOS devices has the Taiwanese government worried, causing the country’s Premier (Prime Minister), Wu Den-yih, to direct a number of government agencies to assess whether Taiwanese companies will be affected by a possible restriction on the gesture,” Matt Brian reports for TNW. “The original patent was filed in December 2005, more than a year before the first iPhone was released.”
“Attending a weekly Cabinet meeting, Wu said that he was concerned about Apple’s new patent, particularly how it would affect Taiwanese companies operating in the smartphone and tablet markets,” Brian reports. “As a result, both the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) and the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) have been instructed to help domestic companies (which includes HTC) to deal with possible patent infringement complaints filed by the Cupertino-based company.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Don’t steal Apple’s patented IP and you won’t have a problem (with Apple, at least).
Related article:
Like Google’s Android, Microsoft’s Windows 8 looks like it violates Apple’s new ‘Slide to unlock’ patent – October 26, 2011