“Apple had just kicked Google’s $12.5 billion dollar boy, Motorola Mobility, right where it hurts winning a major legal battle,” Nigam Arora writes for Forbes.
“In Germany, Munich Regional Court has ruled that Motorola’s phones infringe Apple’s slide-to-unlock patent,” Arora writes. “This is a major victory for Apple. Apple can use this decision against all Android vendors.”
Arora writes, “Technically, it is simple to get around this patent by using a different kind of motion to unlock a phone. However, consumers have gotten used to a simple slide from left to right… When shopping for a phone, the first thing the consumer does is to unlock the phone. Imagine a typical consumer in a phone store getting frustrated at not being able to unlock a phone with a simple left right motion… Then imagine the consumer picking up a different brand of Android phone and having to learn yet another kind of motion to unlock the phone. Imagine all of this happening while the shopper is standing next to a beautiful display of iPhones.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Arline M.” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Apple wins permanent injunction in Germany against Motorola over slide-to-unlock patent – February 16, 2012
I am now going to my lock screen and locking/unlocking it over and over in my android friend’s face.
While I may be tempted to do same, I think for the sake of keeping friends, I will resist…
friends don’t let friends do Android.
+10
Don’t the newest Android phones have Face Unlock anyway?
I think that’s Ice Cream Sandwich, which is on 1% of phones and the feature can be defeated with a photograph.
I tried swiping my face across several at BestBuy and it didn’t work.
Try licking it.
+100.
Don’t the newest Android phones ACTUALLY have face unlock as a feature?
No. Most of the newest Android phones are running older Android versions and will never be updated to the so-called “current” Android, unlike iPhones which all run iOS 5.
I tried swiping my face across several Android phones at BestBuy and it didn’t work. The sales person asked that I use a tissue to clean my nose instead.
Oops. I posted the first response on the wrong comment.
You need better friends if those clowns are still using android
iPad3 gets the — A5X processor?
No. The A5S. The S is for speed…. Which they would be taking if they called it that.
Fsck G–gle and the mean, green trashcan!!!
Apple kicks G oo gle where it hurts… In the “oo”‘s !
+1
LOL!!
how do you know G oo gle has any? By the way they been acting, they look more like ( I )
g ( | ) gle? Hahaahaha.
Slide to unlock is only the beginning. What will happen when the rest of the other Apple patents get asserted? Inertial scrolling, data tapping, bounce scrolling, unified search, word completion, etc. A single patent may not be a big deal, but I think all of them as a group could be pretty damaging to Android. No wonder Googorola is playing hardball with their FRAND patents. They’re using that as leverage to get Apple to license their IP arsenal. The question is who will flinch first. I wonder if Apple patented pinch to zoom. That would be huge.
They do have a limited patent on pinch to zoom.here it is:
http://hothardware.com/m/News/Apple-Wins-PinchtoZoom-Patent-with-Caveats/Default.aspx
Every bit helps! Stick it to them!
“Technically, it is simple to get around this patent by using a different kind of motion to unlock a phone”
Ok, so they just need to get around for another 199 patents? Good luck with that google.
Google is too late to the game to be able to have more than a distant 2nd place in user functionality and usability in my opinion.
Google also totally ignored the Apple concept of a totally integrated set of electronic devices from home to vehicle to work, which Google simply can NEVER EVER achieve.
Now I understand why Eric M. Schmidt is selling $1.5 billion dollars of Google stock.
And Google gets punched by Oracle!!
Yes and Larry will make them pay dearly …. Oh they can use but they will pay big time …. Larry is ruthless!
The email correspondence is so damming, Google is toast!
Technically, it’s simple to get around this patent. In practice, Google and their Android partners couldn’t innovate their way out of a paper bag.
So, depending on who you are, this patent is actually impossible to get around.
Back in November 2007, when the Open Handset Alliance, led by Google, was formed to develop a mobile handset based on Android, I posted a comment that all parties involved should make sure that the 200+ patents Apple had filed in conjunction with the iPhone should be required reading by all those involved.
Now see what happened when they didn’t take my advice. 🙂
No, actually they probably did. As a brainstorming session.
Yes, you’re probably right. I think I forgot to tell them, read BUT DO NO COPY. Oops!
“This is Great”
Just to celebrate, I’m watching Animal House.
Kick ’em in the O/O sssss.
Finally. Some justice.
So this is what Steve and Apple meant by thermal nuclear war.
So the court said in effect, Android copied Apple, and must stop. Isn’t that the most important finding here – one that Fandroids refuse to acknowledge? It’s so obvious to the whole world that Android is a wholesale ripoff of iOS, and this small milestone spells huge trouble for Google’s unprincipled arrogance.
Other than Google, what other word has ‘oo’ in it?
Fools.
noodle
poodle
hood
hoodie
pool
stool
tool
mood
stood
spoon
root
boot
scooter
boom
doodle
boogie
toot
foot
to name but a few
As the Good Doctor MDN would say, Boom!
Most appropriate response to the article’s title, would be “OOF”
And Moo says the Google Cash Cow as The stocks are sold and the company crashes.
The sound you hear of G oo gle’s being kicked in the OO’s is “MOOF!”
And this is how the patent suit from Joseph Enterprises, Inc. started over the “clap on to unlock” feature.